Star Fox: Contact
by Adder McBannon
Summary: The Lylat System may have achieved peace within its borders...but a new threat has emerged. Star Fox, with faces new and old, must band together with new allies against the greatest threat Lylat System has ever seen...the human invaders...
1. Prologue & Chapter 1: The War Begins

Well, here it is. _Star Fox: Contact _has come a long way since its debut on the Nintendo NSider Forums back in 2006...Wow, I can't even remember exactly when that was. Anyways, this is the third version of my first attempt at a fanfic. It's certainly a LOT better than the first two attempts, but at any rate...I'll just let you read and enjoy.

A note to readers- though most of the stuff here remains unchanged from its NSider format language-wise, the cursing does pick up pace towards the end. And this story is also quite gory, even early on. That's to be expected, considering one of the main things I wanted to do with Contact was to show how gruesome war is.

Anyways, without further ado, here is the first installment of my fanfic series, known as the Contact Saga. Read and enjoy. Reviews, comments, concerns, constructive criticism and all are very much appreciated and encouraged.

* * *

_Star Fox  
Contact_

Prologue

Peace has long settled into the Lylat System after many years of war and bloodshed. The Lylatians, no longer at war began to pursue a happier lifestyle- one full of intellectual curiosity and maintenance of peace. The people of the planets of Corneria, Venom, Aquas, Fichina, Zoness, Macbeth, Titania, Fortuna, and Katina united to form the Confederation of the United Planets of the Lylat System.

And of Star Fox, the famous team of mercenaries? Team leader Fox McCloud and the team telepath Krystal couldn't keep their love for each other a secret and became married and had two sons- Marcus, born blind but inherited psychic sight from his mother and became the team sniper, and Tallon, a physically fit heavy gunner. Falco Lombardi, the team's well-known ace pilot still stuck with the team, but just couldn't seem to stay out of the sky for long, which is natural for a bird. The team mechanic Slippy Toad eventually left the team to work in the Cornerian R&D Department to let his mechanical genius and imagination help him design new technologies, both for civilians and military personnel alike. Peppy Hare, unfortunately, has retired and is currently living in a retirement home somewhere in Corneria City. All of the members, like everyone in the Lylat System, relaxed and hoped that peace just might endure…

However, a new enemy emerged from the bowels of space- a species not known for their technology, but for their quick mind and resilience. They were a bipedal, sentient, and highly intelligent alien race, few of which exist in the universe. Where they failed in war tech they succeeded in mass production and numbers. They are…the humans.

Chapter 1: The War Begins

October 23, 2361

700 hours

Mothership-class Vessel_ Great Fox_

The orange vulpine known as Fox let out a sleepy yawn as he rose from his bed and stretched letting out a soft grunt as he cracked his back. He was of a good stature, despite that he was a bit past forty-five years of age. Accompanying his light orange fur was a white-tipped tail along with a minuscule Mohawk of the same color. The kitsune blinked his green eyes a few times to readjust to the light of Solar, the Lylat System's star, which was seeping through the shuttered window of their team's mothership, the _Great Fox_.

"Hey, Krystal," he whispered with a smile, "Come on, wake up, sleepyhead." His wife's ears perked up, and she let out a small groan. The telepathic vixen was a few years younger than Fox, and her slender, blue-furred body was covered in enigmatic symbols. She groggily opened up her light blue eyes.

"G'morning Fox," the blue vixen yawned. The couple performed their daily morning routine: taking a quick steam shower with clothes on, using the toilet if necessary, and changing into more suitable clothes. Fox was now wearing a green soldier's uniform with a silver vest, while Krystal was adorned in her signature, blue flight suit with a pendant, small earrings, and a few tail rings.

The couple headed outside of their room into a small hallway that led to the bridge of their mothership. The two were met in the room by their older son, Marcus- a blue kitsune who has a weird habit of going to bed late and getting up extremely early. While the twenty-one year old sharpshooter was of slightly less build than his father, his eyes were quite intimidating. Being blind, they were completely pupilless with a cloudy, gray color. Due to his inheritance of psychic sight, however, purplish veins sprouted from the eyes' centers and wrapped around his entire eyeball.

"Hey, mom," he said without a hint of fatigue. "Hey, dad. Your cappuccinos are done."

"Hey, Marcus," Krystal groaned as she headed for the coffee maker. "What time did you get up?"

"Four A.M., Cornerian time- three hours before you two."

"And what time did you go to bed?" Fox asked as he sipped on his cappuccino.

"Midnight." Marcus said, still without a single sign of sleepiness.

Fox sighed. _How the hell does he do that?_ he thought.

Eventually, Falco, a blue bird of prey in a red flight jumpsuit, and Tallon, Fox's and Krystal's eighteen year old second son, whose brownish fur was rippling with muscles; rose from bed and headed to the bridge. The team emptied their coffee mugs; each preferred their own kind of coffee. Fox and Krystal had a taste for cappuccinos, Marcus preferred the natural flavor of green tea, Falco had an affinity for mochas, and Tallon seemed to enjoy black coffee. Suddenly, several warning bells rang, and everybody simultaneously dropped their ceramic mugs, which shattered on the metallic floor.

"Damn!" Fox yelped. "Jeez, you've gotta be kidding me! It's been years since our last call!" Everybody groaned- no one wanted trouble at eight thirty in the morning.

"Incoming message from Supreme General Pepper," the ship's yellow operation's droid said. "Opening communications line now."

The gigantic windscreen of the _Great Fox _changed to reveal the ever-dour looking Supreme General Pepper, the Lylat System's ruler, over a live video feed. The bloodhound was dressed in a red uniform lined with golden buttons and epaulettes.

"What's the situation, General?" Fox inquired.

"Star Fox," the bloodhound general started, "your presence is required in the orbit-space above Titania. We have been attacked."

"You mean _again_, sir?" Tallon sighed, sounding almost uninterested, "So who's the culprit this time?"

"Some race that refer to themselves humans," the general answered, a picture depicted a regular human soldier appearing next to his screen. "We don't know where they came from or how they got here, but they're attacking every single one of our planets! I can't give you many details because ULS Intelligence is completely overrun with information! You're all needed immediately. Humans have already gained footholds on many of our planets which are already under siege. But we can't lose Titania- that is the planet where we get the resources for our war machines. I know that this is awful short for a mission briefing, but each and every one of you is needed immediately! The Titanian Orbital Defense Force is already trying to repulse the invasion force, but they need help! Now get going!" The screen then flashed blank and the windshield once more showed the blackness of space.

"Well, here we go again," Krystal sighed. "Rushing into battle with an unknown alien race for yet another time."

"Alright guys, you heard the general," Fox turned to his family and companions, "ROB, get us to Titania- double time. The rest of you, get to your arwings! Go, go, go!" The team hurried to the pneumatic lift that carried everyone to their fighters. By the time they were in the hangar and hopped in to their arwings, the _Great Fox _had already made the warp to Titania. Explosions were already visible in the space above the desert planet. "ROB! Launch all ships now!" The arwings were launched out of the hangar charring the a fifth of the hangar.

The team was already in a maze of laser and autocannon fire. The Titanian air force had better firing positions while the humans had the sheer numbers- which side was winning was anyone's guess. The team immediately went into action blasting the heavily outdated human fighters, turning them to balls of fiery metal and glass. Everyone was being targets in the gigantic battle- everyone had at least one fighter tailing him or her. Fox was quickly lost- he didn't know who to assist.

_Falco and Krystal are good pilots, they should be able to fend them off. I'm not so sure about Tallon and Marcus, though_, Fox thought. He immediately chased after Marcus's pursuers. "Marcus! Pull up!" As his younger son was heading up, Fox locked onto a fighter in the center of the cluster and launched a smart bomb. Seconds later, all that was remaining of the fighters were bits of metal. He repeated the process for Tallon's tailgaters.

"Thanks, dad," Tallon sighed in relief. "We owe you one." Suddenly, several cannon rounds impacted the windshield of Fox's arwing, cracking the glass into a small spider web.

"Here's your chance!" Fox exclaimed, spotting the fighter following him closely behind. Salvo after salvo of cannon fire pierced Fox's arwing, slowly crippling it. "Argh!" Fox yelped as a flak bomb exploded in front of him. Fox tried to shake the fighter off, using every technique he had ever learned, but to his dismay, the fighter copied the maneuvers with sadistic glee, as if welcoming the challenge. "I can't get him off my six!" Fox screamed. He looked behind him and saw that the fighter had achieved lock onto his arwing's heat signature. _He's going to fire a missile- and in this short range, he can't miss! _Fox thought.

"FOX," Krystal screamed, "NOOO!" Just then a railgun beam hit Fox's pursuer in a brilliant, green beam of energy, blasting a hole right through the fighter. The fighter spun wildly out of control before it collided with a human capital ship, blowing a hole in it which, in turn, caused it to decompress in the vacuum of space and crumple up before promptly exploding. "What the hell was that?" Krystal asked amazed. Fox traced the shot back to its origin to find Solar, the system's star. Five tiny dots were heading towards the battlefield at breakneck speed.

"Incoming fighters!" Fox reported over the comm network as he squinted into Solar, turning his arwing to get a better angle for a clear shot. Then the fighters roared past his ship at a speed impossible for any known fighter to accelerate to. Their hyper-static plasma engines were so loud Fox grunted as he was momentarily deafened by them as the fighters zoomed by at Mach 4. The fighters then begin ripping through the enemy's line of defense, blasting through the ranks of capital ships unfortunate enough to get in their way.

"Huh, well, at least their on our side," Falco huffed. "Hey! They got into our communications frequency!"

"Star Fox! We're here to help!" said a voice garbled by static. The screen then cleared to reveal a green snake in a flight suit. "We could use a little assistance, so you can start by-"

"And just why should we help you, snake-boy?" Tallon interrupted. "We already have enough things to do here!"

"Because I just saved your leader from getting blown out of space!" the enigmatic snake roared back. "Now start taking down fighters to cover our advance. Then, we'll provide a distraction so you- damn!" The snake cursed as he blew up a would-be kamikaze fighter. "-so you can flank them from their starboard side." Fox, although not one to enjoy following orders, realized he was in the presence of a more tactical mind.

"Alright team," Fox finally said. "You heard what he said- now let's make some fireworks!" The team cheered as they returned to the fray and started to thin out the ranks of enemy fighters. After ripping apart a cluster of enemy fighters, Fox finally saw a glimpse of their allies' fighters.

When he saw one up close, Fox thought it was the most high-tech fighter he had ever seen. The fighter used an aerodynamic three pronged structure to not only lower drag, but guide trace amount of oxygen molecules in space to the air vents, which were used to cool down the four hyper-static plasma engines. The fighter's four wings were able to change positions, possibly to convert the fighter into a set of many different configurations. The fighter's sheer amount of weaponry on the hull astounded Fox. There were four heavy laser autocannons, two missile launchers, a bomb dropper, a rear mounted flak cannon, and a bottom mounted railgun. _Just one of these fighters has more firepower than a Cornerian capital ship!_ Fox thought.

"Hey, Fox!" Falco exclaimed. "Stop drooling at their ships and watch were you're going!" Fox looked in front of him and barely avoided a collision with the team's ace pilot.

"Sorry, Falco!" Fox apologized. He not only was distracted, but also let his guard down. A trio of fighters started tailgating Fox. "AW C'MON! Not again!" Fox cursed. However, a few laser blasts turned the aces into scrap metal.

"That's twice I had to save your sorry hide," the green serpent said again. "If this is really the famous Fox McCloud I've been hearing about, then you don't deserve to be in this battle." Three more railgun blasts, three more explosions of the enemy capital ships.

"Hey," Fox asked, slightly irritated, "what about that distraction you talked about?" The snake answered by pulling up next to Fox's cockpit. Through the refractive glass, Fox saw the snake lift up a hand, which held a remote bomb trigger. The snake clicked it twice.

In the middle of the battlefield was a spherical, cloaked nova bomb that was unknown to anyone else aside from the strange, new allies. As it received the trigger's signal, a shrill beep, inaudible in the battlefield around it, went off before it detonated with a white-hot blast, incinerating an area equal to the size of a medium-sized city. This area, fortunately, included half of the humans' fleet, including the flagship.

"Flank them," the mysterious serpent ordered as he sped away.

"Team, flank from the starboard side of the fleet!" Fox ordered. Every fighter zoomed away except for his two sons. "The right side of the fleet." he put in simpler terms. Now, they sped away. "Kids." Fox sighed again.

Sporadic destruction spread through the human fleet as the Titanian fleet broke through the front lines of the human invasion force. Fighters, transport ships, and capital ships were all blown to bits. The human forces made a hyper jump and retreated. The Titanians had successfully defeated the enemy fleet.

There was an uproar of cheering over the radio comm. "Whooooee!" Marcus sighed, "Glad that's over. Hey, whoever you five are, thanks for your assistance."

"You guys did fine as well," the snake replied. "Now meet us on our mothership. We need a proper welcome wagon. Alright, _Dreadnought_ you can materialize now." The gargantuan ship uncloaked itself and appeared before the heroes. Star Fox gaped in awe of the sheer size of the ship. It was simply so huge that no one could really make out the ship's shape. The mothership made the _Great Fox _look like an ant in comparison.

"Wow," Tallon commented. "that's, uh, pretty big."

"You always knew the right words for everything, eh?" Marcus said sarcastically. Tallon ignored the comment.

"Alright, people," the serpent called out, "let's head on inside. Star Fox, just don't appear hostile to the defense systems."

The team followed the new fighters to the hangar, a gaping, horizontal rectangle of gleaming light radiating from the inside. _These guys are amazing! Just who are they? _Fox thought.

* * *

At the end of each installment, I usually like to type up a few thoughts and reflections on these works, considering they're almost three years old as of August 2009.

Y'know, now that I look back at this prologue and chapter, it's almost laughable compared to my future works. The detail and dialogue is rather shoddy compared to what I have in more recent installments. Seriously, it's like this- "Humans are invading the Lylat System. Stop them! Oh, and you get new allies, by the way. =3".

Still, this is my first official fanfic. It will get better. By the way, I almost forgot to mention- Contact is already completed, 400+ pages and all, and I'm currently working on the sequel. I will be posting chapters here every few days or a week or so. Anyways, I hope you, as my readers, will continue to enjoy this interesting fic of mine...

Also, reviews are very much appreciated. :)


	2. Chapter 2: New Alliances

Chapter 2: New Alliances

October 23, 2361

1000 hours

Inside The _Dreadnought_

The arwings and the other fighters landed in a hangar cluttered with flight gear, tanks, jeeps, artillery, helicopter, and automated turrets, which were following the Star Fox team's movements and were prepared to fire at the new heat signatures if they proved to be hostile. All of the pilots got out of their fighters.

Star Fox looked at the team of five soldiers lined up in front of them. There was what looked like a tall, green-scaled cobra that towered over even Falco who appeared to be the leader of the group. He was wearing a pair of combat cargo pants along with a black, metal vest. Despite his height, he was not at all clumsy-looking, and he stood in a military attention stance. His yellow eyes, in the middle of which were black slits for pupils, gave him a slightly hostile feel.

Then, flanking his right side was a tan, brown spotted boa constrictor, who had an intimidating array of muscles. His tiny, dark eyes intensified the snake's overall look. He was merely dressed in shirt with the sleeves ripped off, exposing his muscles, and a pair of jeans. Though intimidating, the figure looked quite warm and friendly.

To the cobra's left was a smug-looking pit viper, who appeared extremely flexible. He was an albino, meaning his scales were of the whitest color and his eyes were a dark red. The serpent was dressed in a black trench coat, which was completely buttoned up and contrasted against his bright scales.

Next, to the far right was a creature Fox couldn't identify. The figure was completely covered in black and gray full-body armor. His chest area was comprised of four separate armor plates joined together over black matte. The arms were covered in several dozen strips of flexible metal, while the joints were covered by corrugated matte and the hands were covered by what looked like metal gloves. His legs were covered in an assortment of metal plates, with spiked greaves covering his shins. The helmet he wore was in the shape of an upside-down equilateral triangle with a non-transparent visor of the same shape, albeit smaller, and two small stubs at the top tips of the triangle. The most striking feature Fox noticed were the figure's gigantic, black-colored wings.

Finally, on the far left was a snow white vixen, who appeared about Krystal's age. She was dressed in an almost-seamless, silver armor suit. Her gray-colored eyes gave her a slightly masculine feel, as did the fact that she was carrying two light sniper carbines on her back.

"Allow me to introduce myself and my team," the cobra-like snake said with an air of command. "I am Adder McBannon, and this is Brutus Kinsley," The muscled boa, "Ace Hawkins," The albino, "Aloysius Sylva," The armored creature, "and Cristine Willis," The vixen. "We are the Star Serpent Elite Squadron and Soldier Force, your new allies, as appointed by Supreme General Pepper."

"Thanks for your assistance earlier," Fox said, not liking the idea of allies. "Your team was a key part in winning this battle."

"Hmph" Adder grunted as he checked his wristwatch. "Yeah, well it's about time for lunch. Meet you in the mess hall. Brutus, I trust you've gotten finished with those sirloins. We mustn't disappoint our new allies."

"I have, sir," the boa constrictor replied soldier-like to his superior. "Follow us, Team Star Fox."

The two teams met in a large dining hall prepared for all of them to eat. Around the room were smaller tables which had been hastily moved out of the way to allow room for a single, large table for them to sit at. A cafeteria-esque counter laid near a kitchen at one corner of the hall. Star Serpent's leader walked over to the table, where Brutus was quickly setting up dinner, picked up his sirloin, and swallowed it whole before turning around and walking away.

"Guys, I'm going to my room. Disturb me only if it's an emergency," Adder said as he walked away into the ship's many hallways.

"Does he always do that?" Marcus asked, concerned.

"You get used to it after a while. Just give him some space," Aloysius spoke in a slightly digitized voice. Snakes have always been at the bottom of society, and were cruelly treated and beaten until recent laws had been passed.

"We've all had," Ace added. "Anyways, we should get to know each other a little bit. Who's first?"

Everybody told a little bit about him or herself. Brutus was Adder's close friend at the military academy and they've been partners ever since. He is currently the heavy gunner of the team and has a lionhearted personality.

Ace was a little childish at times, but usually was quite serious. He's also the wunderkind of Star Serpent and invented many of their weapons and vehicles. Additionally, he is the team's ace pilot and small-arms expert.

Cristine, preferring being called Cris, was orphaned during the aparoid invasion. Her mother's dying wish was to have Adder look over her. He sacrificed his rank as a lieutenant to get her out of harm's way, deserting his squad. She is currently the sniper of the team. Last was Aloysius.

"Hmph," the armored soldier huffed, then growled. "My turn, eh? Well, I might as well show you guys what I look like, so…here goes…" He removed his helmet with a small hiss of air and slammed it on the table in front of him. Even Fox had to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

"Oh, Gods," Krystal gasped. Aloysius' face has been almost completely ripped off, and his eyes had retreated deep into his skull, possibly to avoid further torture. Several parts of his skull had small cracks, and without his helmet, his specie was finally revealed- he was a bat.

"I'm not the bat…hhhh…I used to be," Aloysius said in a raspy voice. "When I was a…hhhh…lieutenant during the war…hhhh…against Andross, I was captured. I…hhhh…knew vital intel on the…hhhh…next major attack on Andross, and they…hhhh…wanted it. I was subjected to…hhhh…torture of many kinds…hhhh…As a result, I lost much…hhhh…of my original body. Adder was the one who broke me out of that infernal…hhhh…place, and I have a debt to pay him…hhhh…so I joined his team. I'm now the…hhhh…berserker and rifleman of Star Serpent," He quickly put his helmet back on with another hiss of air before gasping for breath and continuing in his old, digitized voice. "Urgh…uhhhhh…From what I can tell, he's suffered worse than I have, in a way. Something happened to him a while ago. He needs time alone every so often. Just let him do his thing."

"Anyways, nice crib," Falco said, trying to change the subject.

"Good, 'cause Adder said that he has new rooms here for you. This is your new mothership, Star Fox."

"But what about the _Great Fox_ and ROB?" Fox asked. "Sure the first _Great Fox_ was destroyed, but this one's just as special."

"Fox, this ship was ordered by your dad," Ace replied. "This ship was constructed in the Algax Shipyards by James McCloud's orders to use as a new base of operations, although he never got the chance. And we'll put the Great Fox in the docking bay, and ROB's already onboard."

"But- how did?" Fox stammered.

"All in due time Fox, all in due time." Ace interrupted. "Best go to bed- we have a special-ops mission tomorrow in the early mornin', so get some rest. G'night." Everyone retired to their new rooms, and Star Fox found that the rooms were exactly like their old ones on the Great Fox. Falco had his hammock and fighter design posters, Tallon had his rock band posters and his plaid bed, and Marcus had his simple mat. Fox and Krystal even had a twin bed to sleep in together. The couple bid their friends a good night, undressed, and got in bed.

"Quite a day, eh Fox?" Krystal yawned.

"Yeah," Fox replied with a tired sigh, "new allies, new war, and everything. I just hope we can trust these guys."

"They seemed trustworthy enough," Krystal reassured him, "I already looked over their consciences and everything checks out fine."

"I hope so," Fox turned on his side and yawned. "G'night, Krystal."

"Night, Fox," Krystal replied. The couple fell asleep.

* * *

This chapter was pretty much an introduction to my original characters. I do realize I could've done a much better job than this, but I suppose it gets the job done. Star Fox meets Star Serpent, they get acquainted with one another, and then they share the _Dreadnought_ for the remainder of the campaign. Simple as that.

At any rate, next chapter's a ground border. A little violent, too. Just a heads-up.


	3. Chapter 3: Operation: Nature Walk

Chapter 3: Operation: Nature Walk

October 24, 2361

230 hours

Fortuna

"Keep your heads down and wait for the green light!" Adder boomed. His team and Star Fox were inside a transport jet flying through a mess of flak explosions and anti-aircraft weapon fire that lit up the early morning. Their jet was flanked by several others. One veered so close that the pit viper-cobra hybrid could see the pilot. "NO! BACK AWAY! YOU'RE GETTING TOO CLOSE! YOU'RE GETTING TOO CLOSE!" he ordered, wincing from the whine of the boisterous engine. The pilot heard him and started moving away, but was hit hard by a flak bomb. Adder shielded his face from the explosion as the plane went down, some soldiers jumping out of the back with landing armor on.

"One minute to the drop-off! One minute!" the pilot shouted.

"Alright people, listen up!" Adder yelled over the engine as he turned to the teams. "Our mission here is to land and soften up the enemy before the strike force arrives. See that armor Ace gave you? Well it turns you into living bomb shell. When you jump, find a target and hit it. Ace, are you sure this armor will sustain the impact?"

"Have any of my inventions let you down before?" the albino shouted back.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Adder rolled his eyes. "Get your weapons ready. And Tallon, land on your stomach! We don't want that plasma thrower of yours to blow up on you!" Tallon nodded in affirmative. Everyone cocked their weapons. Fox had his two blasters ready, Krystal loaded her gatling gun, Marcus checked his laser rifle, Tallon repositioned his prototype plasma thrower, and Falco calibrated the sights of his SMG. Adder looked at his team. Ace got his two Uzi-32s ready, Brutus cocked his chaingun, Cris got her two carbines out, and Aloysius readied his two battle rifles, which he totted like mere pistols. Adder loaded his own weapon, a semi-automatic 40-gauge shotgun with a grenade launcher attached. The rounds weren't powerful due to the high gauge, but he preferred the unique, wide spread.

"TEN SECONDS!" the pilot shouted again. Everybody grew tense and looked at the red light. It flashed green. "EVERYBODY JUMP!"

Adder was the first to react and jumped out of the plane. The wind whipped by his face as he fell towards Fortuna's worldwide rain forest. _Now to find a target,_ he thought. He spotted an SAM (surface-to-air) missile launcher hidden in the foliage, and dove for it headfirst. He looked back and the two teams were dispersing as they planned. Fox came up right next to him.

"NO! I TOLD YOU TO DISPERSE!" Adder screamed over the wind. "AUGH! NEVER MIND, HEAD FOR THAT MISSILE LAUNCHER!"

The two collided into the launcher, creating a fiery explosion that sent smoke and debris flying everywhere. Somewhat dazed, Adder closed his eyes. Being a pit viper-cobra hybrid, he could sense heat via two pits located under his nostrils. He found four survivors limping for safety. He aimed down the sight, and cut them down. The fourth one was running away and was almost out of range. The serpent leapt into the air, opened his maw- fangs extended- and bit into his shoulder; he let out a blood-curling scream. His venom's neurotoxins did their work, and the soldier lay on the ground dead in two seconds.

Fox came to his side and said, "Not subtle, but it's better than letting him get away, I suppose."

"Fox, get down and follow me," Adder whispered. "Tons of humans may have heard him and they'll swarm here in seconds. And take off your landing armor- it's gonna weigh us down." They shed their exterior armor and headed into the underbrush.

They walked for what seemed like hours through the foliage. Suddenly, Adder held up his hand- the universal sign for wait. He slit his tongue into the air and motioned in sign language, "I smell petrol. An enemy camp is up ahead." They went into a prone position and crept towards the scent. Sure enough there was an enemy camp, with a couple tanks there. Adder motioned for Fox to get behind the tanks. He flipped a switch on his shotgun, and launched a grenade with a muffled hiss.

The explosion was intense, sending shrapnel everywhere. The humans were all slaughtered, while Adder and Fox were safe behind the tanks. One was still screaming, "Aidez moi, aidez moi." Adder went up to him. The human was covered in shrapnel wounds, and was missing a leg. Fox, seeing this, looked away from the horrid sight.

Adder bent over the human and asked, "Do you understand me?" The soldier nodded in affirmative. "Sleep. And may whatever deity you worship have pity on you." He snapped his neck with one hand. "Better to die a quick death than a slow, painful one."

He turned towards Fox, who turned to face him, and lamented, "This is war Fox. Death is everywhere."

"Yeah, I guess so." Fox sighed. He looked at the tank. "What do you say for a ride?" Adder smiled at the suggestion.

* * *

To Marcus, the world appeared in a field of azure with organic beings shown as white. He stood up from the ruins of the flak tank he crushed with the landing armor. _Great, a rain forest full of life,_ the vulpine thought. _Finding targets is gonna be tough._ He drew out his laser rifle, prepared to shoot at anything larger than a tree stump. He crouched underneath some fallen logs as he spotted a group of humans. A few dozen of them, however, appeared to be hovering off of the ground in a sitting positions. _An armor column._

"Roland-op twenty-four, Roland-op twenty-four, this is Settler Company seven. I've got some alpha bearing north-northeast," he spoke into the comm. "Radioing my coordinates now. Over."

"Settler seven, this is Roland-op twenty-four," the radio-op replied. "We are sending in an arm strike, I repeat we are sending in an albino strike. Get out of the surrounding area now. Over and out." Marcus understood the message- artillery strike. He stood up and ran away from the area. He could hear rapid-fire cannon shots in the distance, and he dropped into a low sprint, and then crouched down to survey his work.

The artillery shots hit hard and fast, ripping apart the tanks in no time at all. Several seconds passed and Marcus saw some survivors. He attached a flash suppressor to his laser rifle and aimed down the sight. _I don't need no scope, _he thought. He shot each and every of the thirteen survivors in the head, every shot resulting in what looked like a spray of white material to him.

Marcus scanned the area for any remaining survivors before getting to his feet. Almost immediately, a machete was at his neck.

"Don't move," the human said. "You are now a prisoner of war." Marcus jumped into the air and did a bicycle kick into the soldier's head and heard the satisfactory crack of his skull. The soldier crumpled into the ground.

_Novice. Figures,_ Marcus thought. He turned around and headed for the meeting spot.

* * *

Aloysius was not quiet when it came to combat. Not that it mattered to him anyway. He had already single-handedly taken down a squad of tanks. As the armored bat walked away from the smoldering ruins he totted his two battle rifles that would've been far too heavy for a regular man to carry. It was in times like these that he liked being more machine than organic.

He flew on his massive wings through the canopy of the jungle. _Already afternoon._ _And right on schedule,_ he thought. He made an ultra-sonic squeak when he landed again, and he found several troops to his right when the sound waves bounced back. _Showtime._

Aloysius snuck up on the rear guard and twisted his head around with inhuman strength. He savored the wide-eyed, shocked look on the soldiers face before he crumpled to the ground. The remaining soldiers wheeled around in surprise. Aloysius easily took down the next three but the last one reacted fast enough to fire at him. He merely stood his ground and faced him. The soldier emptied the rest of the clip into him as Aloysius casually walked toward him. The human's mouth was hung open in disbelief.

"Try aiming a little higher next time, and then you'd be a nuisance," Aloysius gloated. He grabbed the man's face and lifted him off the ground. He smiled behind the visor as the soldier made muffled cries for help. With some added pressure, he crushed his skull.

Another nearby squad heard the gunshots and confronted the monstrosity and all opened fire. They all emptied their clips on him. Aloysius still stood firm. Not even the eleven shotgun blasts and grenade shrapnel had pierced his armor.

"You guys just never learn," He holstered his battle rifles and activated his energy wristblades. He arched his back and roared as loud as he could.

The soldiers ran like hell for safety, some even abandoning their weapons, screaming in terror. He cut each of them off and sliced them all with his blades. He stood up from the mess and sheathed the wristblades with a hiss. The whole attack had taken two minutes. _New record. _Aloysius thought as he flew towards the rendezvous spot.

* * *

Krystal rose from the ruins of the flak cannon she hit. She hated the fact that she wasn't battling alongside Fox, but she knew that Star Serpent did the best they could for everyone's safety. She hoisted her gatling gun up and headed into the jungle. She waited for her eyesight to adjust to the darkness before pressing on.

The blue-furred vixen suddenly had the feeling that she was being stalked, and her feelings never let her down before. She wheeled around, but found nothing. _Maybe I'm just tired, _she _was_ natural to feel a little fatigue after sleeping for only a few hours and walking for several miles. She resumed her pace. A branch snapped and she heard a muffled curse.

Krystal turned around and found a human like shape, except it was totally transparent. It opened fire on her. She took cover behind a thick tree trunk. Bullets were ripping through the bark, and soon enough, it would reach her flak jacket. She had to move, but that would put her directly in that… thing's line of fire. Things were looking grim. She took a blind burst, but she knew she missed after hearing the lasers piercing a nearby boulder.

Krystal leaned around the tree for another burst and found herself staring down the barrel of a rifle._ Crap._ she cursed mentally.

"Drop your weapon and put your hands behind your head," the transparent object ordered. Krystal did as she was told. "Now turn around." She turned around slowly. "Get moving you lit-!" Krystal looked back after noticing that the entity hadn't finished its sentence. The soldier was down on the ground with a bullet wound in his head, his transparency disappeared, while slowly gaining a black outline. Color filled in between the lines, and a human soldier in full body armor took its place.

Ace leapt twenty feet down from the tree branch and landed near Krystal. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied. "How did the humans get active camouflage technology? We've just developed it!"

Ace checked the human's armor. "It was made in 2345." Ace said. "It seems they have some tech we don't have in mass production yet. We need to tell Adder this. If they developed active camo, then there's no telling what else they've developed. Come on!" Ace crouched down and Krystal cautiously followed him.

"Come on, I won't bite," the albino joked.

"Think about what you are for a second," Krystal replied with a sigh. "Ooh, I'm getting that feeling we have company again. Get down behind those rocks."

* * *

Ace vaulted over a rock and took cover, getting out his Uzi-32's. He motioned for Krystal to set up her gatling gun on the rock. She took only three seconds to get the tripod deployed. _Not bad_. he thought. He closed his eyes and activated his heat-sensing organs. The pits revealed thirteen enemy soldiers in active camo. One was holding a rocket launcher. He relayed this info to Krystal via sign language. She nodded. The troops entered his range, not taking notice to the two Lylatians crouching down behind the boulders. _Wait for it_. Ace thought. They passed him. _NOW!_

Ace leapt over the troops. For him, time seemed to slow down. He fired both his Uzis, ripping through the soldiers and disrupting the active camo and making them visible, while doing a spiral in the air. The bullets traveled so much slower that their path was visible in a distorted line. Time went back in a regular pace and he landed on the ground and rolled behind another boulder. Krystal opened fire with her gatling gun, ripping through the soldiers and cutting the first one in half. Ace reloaded his Uzis and went back into the fray, firing at the remaining enemy soldiers. Soon the only things that moved were the overheated barrels on Krystal's gatling gun.

"Nice job," Ace commented. "Let's get going- double time. I don't want anymore enemy contact. Especially from these guys." Krystal folded up the tripod and followed Ace to the meeting point.

* * *

Cris crouched over the dead body of the once-cloaked and alive soldier. _This body armor reads year 2321. The humans have better technology than we originally thought,_ she thought. She continued walking down through the foliage and stopped by a small creek. Blood was flowing down it, and a familiar roar filled her ears. _Yep, that's Aloysius, alright, _Cris thought. _Never cleans up after himself. Not that he needs to. _She spotted a camouflaged radar installation crawling with troops. _Time to get to work._

Cris crept into the base without notice and hid underneath a search tower. She pulled out her two sniper carbines, reloaded them, and aimed through the scope of the one in her left hand. She fired through the heads of the ones in a watchtower. No one noticed her because of the silencers and flash hiders.

She then saw that a soldier spotted her and was about to raise the alarm. Cris grabbed him and pulled him behind a building. She grabbed the human's armpits and placed her foot on his back before shoving it downwards, breaking his spine as she hid the body.

Unfortunately another saw her do it, and shouted, "ALARME! ALARME!" Cris grabbed him from behind and pointed her other carbine at his head. The soldiers aiming at her lowered their weapons. She then snapped the neck of the soldier she was holding, but attracted a volley of fire in doing so. She leapt into the air and the shots hit the soldier. Time seemed to slow and, having abnormally fast trigger fingers, shot every soldier in the courtyard in the head, while at the same time doing a back flip onto a nearby one-story building.

Cris saw an air vent into the building and crashed through it, landing on the soldier below it and knocked him out. The soldiers inside drew their weapons. She flipped over a desk and took cover just as the bullets began pulverizing the sheet metal. She leaned over the desk and shot two soldiers, who dropped to the floor dead. She repeated this tactic a few more times, and cleared the room.

The white-furred vulpine then leaned her head against doors to determine where the op center was for the installation. At the middle door, she heard the steady whine of electronic equipment. _Jackpot._ she smiled with the thought. She reloaded her carbines.

She kicked down the door and fired at the radio operators, killing them all. A security camera caught sight of her and several klaxons rang as the alarm was raised. She had been discovered. Cris dropped a packet of C-32 onto the ground and set the timer for twenty seconds. She ran out the office building and out of the installation. Several machine guns fired behind her. A bullet hit her right arm, and she winced in pain, almost dropping her carbine. She got down onto the ground. _3-2-1._

The explosion was immense. The whole radar installation was engulfed in a fiery explosion that sent jungle creatures scurrying for safety. She looked back at the installation and found the whole thing eradicated. _Good, but still not as good as Adder. Cris looked at her right arm._ Blood was streaking down the wound, staining her white fur. She removed the bullet, cleaned the wound, and attached a bandage. _Good thing I'm left-handed._ Cris thought as she walked away from the wreckage. _Dammit, I lost forty ULS credits on that stupid bet, now._

* * *

Tallon crouched down low as he watched the tank roll over the foliage. It clearly wasn't suited for the jungle, as its treads were tangled in the roots of a giant tree. He looked down. The plasma thrower Ace had given him was in his hands. Ace said that it only stung organic matter, and would be able to pass through a tank and leave it unscathed, but disintegrate everyone inside of it. _I hope he's right._ Tallon thought. He leapt in front of the tank and pulled the trigger. With a loud screech like that of the scraping of a knife against a chalkboard, blue, gaseous plasma began flowing from the barrel and jetted out through the tank. Sure enough, he could hear the person inside scream before being disintegrated. _Well, whadda ya know, he was!_ Tallon thought. _At least the humans were able to engineered one-person tanks. _For some reason, he heard another scream, and crouched down.

He continued down the path and stopped. There was an empty Landmaster tank right there. _The plasma jet must've accidentally gone through the Landmaster too. Whoops._ Tallon grimaced having not mastered his new weapon yet and killing a fellow brother in arms because of it. The Landmaster was still in good shape, so Tallon got in (slightly disgusted by the pale ash that covered the seat from the soldier who preoccupied it) and drove it off towards a barracks that Adder told them was nearby.

Tallon hovered through the air, and took a look at the base and found the fuel depot deep inside of it. He decided that was his target, and headed on for it.

He drove the tank into the depot and started blowing up the unmanned tanks and jeeps, sending several repairmen running for their lives. He took them down with the coaxial laser machine gun. Several alarms rang, and soon enough, enemy tanks appeared on-scene. Their tank rounds didn't do much damage to the Landmaster's superior armor. He blew them all up with railgun shot each. Tallon drove the tank down the road and had a clear shot to the fuel drums. Unfortunately, the soldier with a rocket launcher a few yards away had a clear shot of _him_.

The rocket slammed into the tank, making electronic equipment go haywire. Tallon got out of the Landmaster and got his plasma thrower ready. He disintegrated the soldier, and his armor fell to the ground without a person wearing it. The Landmaster exploded behind him, knocking Tallon into the ground. He got out his parabolic grenade launcher out and stood up. The enemy tank was aiming at him, but Tallon fired the grenade before he did.

The grenade hit the fuel drums, causing an explosion that sent debris into the tank, ripping it apart like shrapnel to a grunt. Tallon ran as fast as he could towards the exit before a chain reaction took place. He could already hear explosions of other fuel drums in the distance.

Tallon got out of the base just in time. The whole square-mile of vehicles, fuel, troops, and supplies went up in smoke as the whole foundation of the surrounding land exploded. He resumed a normal pace, and headed toward the meeting spot. _Hoo-rah!_ Tallon thought. _Man, I could go for a hot meal now_. He smiled to himself. _Boy, dad's gonna be proud of me tonight!_

* * *

The human soldier was in heavy fatigue. He had been running away from that iron-clad monstrosity for nearly five miles. He paused by a small river and got a drink. Something in the water caught his attention. He leaned closer to notice what they were- scales. Suddenly, a gigantic boa constrictor reached out of the water and pulled him in with a muffled scream. After the ripples subsided, bubbles began floating for the surface, followed by the body of the dead soldier.

Brutus climbed out of the river and got to his feet. _So, that makes fifty-two men down today_ he thought. "Falco, get down here." Brutus ordered. The avian descended from the tree.

"Man, you didn't even give me a chance to shoot him!" Falco whined. "Before I climbed down, I saw some trees swaying in the distance. Something's coming fast." Almost instantly, he heard tank treads in the distance.

"GET DOWN!" Brutus yelled. A tank rolled out of the foliage and stopped in front of Falco. Brutus was about to fire a grenade into it when Fox poked out of the manhole.

"Don't shoot!" Fox screamed. "Friendly fire!" Brutus sighed out of relief. Fox climbed out, shortly followed by Adder.

"Fox, you are one…terrible…tank driver," Adder shot an angry look at Fox. "You almost ran over your teammate. And let's not forget when you almost drove us over that cliff."

"Yeah, Adder, ignore the seven tanks I blew up. Hey, Falco glad to see your feathers haven't been tanned by the humans yet!" Fox said. He playfully punched Falco in the back.

"Brutus, front and center," Adder saluted him. "At ease, old friend. Glad to see you're okay." Adder paused to observe the dead body floating down the river. "Wow. Not bad."

"Phew!" Brutus sighed, "Nice to see you're okay, sir. For a moment there I thought we were-" He was cut short as a gigantic metal creature burst through the trees, knocking everyone into ground.

Everyone looked up to see a gigantic bipedal tank. It gleamed with ceramic laminate armor, which covered its entire body, from its two, all-terrain legs and tripod-esque feet to a giant head-turret that had what looked like 20mm autocannons.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Falco said as he leapt to his feet and headed for cover. Everyone else did the same, trying to get away from the giant walking tank's line of fire. The mech fired a three second burst of plasma that kicked up molten glass when it hit the sand near the riverbank and sizzled at the trees they used as cover. _First walking tanks and now plasma autocannons? Where do humans get this kind of stuff?_ Brutus thought. He launched a grenade at the monstrous mech. When the smoke cleared, the mech had fallen, but was succeeded by another one, which broke through the trees.

While Falco distracted it with his SMG, Adder leapt onto the head-turret and began shooting through the armor with his 40-gauge shotgun. The mech was down on the ground in seconds. He quickly did a back-flip and landed on another mech and repeated the process. Brutus started up the chaingun and waited for the barrels to spin at his preferred speed. Then he unleashed a barrage of lasers into another mech, knocking it back into the ground. Fox charged his blaster until it glowed red and fired the blast, blowing the head off of a mech, leaving the disk-shaped body and legs to dance about before collapsing to the ground. More and more mechs kept coming from the jungle; Adder, Brutus, Falco, and Fox were either overheating their lasers or running out of ammo.

"There's just no ending to these things!" Adder growled as he dropped another mech. "Run! Everyone!" Everyone ditched their cover and headed for the forest. Adder paused for a moment and then set up a bomb, but got hit in the chest. He fell to the ground, cursing the pain. Brutus stopped, turned back, picked up his commander, and dashed away before the bomb exploded, vaporizing the rest of the mechs.

After things quieted down, everyone gave attention to Adder. Thanks to his thick, scaly hide, the plasma bolt didn't go that deep. Any deeper and he would have been dead.

"Thanks, Brutus." Adder said, "I owe you one. I'm making my lasagna for ya when we get back on the ship."

"You're welcome." Brutus replied, grateful that his leader and friend was still alive. "But after tasting your cooking…no offense, but please don't. The camp's close now- we'll get you some medical attention and-"

"No," Adder said. "I'm fine. There are far more deadly injuries to treat than this one. I've been through worse."

"You don't need to remind be 'bout that part, sir."

The foursome continued on for a couple of miles and reached the camp at nightfall. The rest of Settler Company had set up camp. Tents and campfires were already there and the rest of Star Fox and Star Serpent were there. Krystal ran up to Fox and gave him a big hug when she saw him return. Fox returned the gesture.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Fox." she sighed in relief, "The rest are setting up camp now," She turned to Adder. "Most of our troops have returned safely, with the exception of two grunts. All members of Star Fox and Star Serpent are accounted for."

"Any major injuries among the troops?" Adder inquired.

"Not too many here, and they've mostly been treated," Ace stepped up and spoke. "However, we have been getting reports of cloaked enemy soldiers. Humans aren't supposed to have this kind of tech."

"We just encountered some mechs. Plus, they have plasma autocannons," Falco added. "We still have mechs AND plasma weaponry in research and development. How do humans get all of this?" Plasma weaponry was highly experimental within the Lylat system. Plasma weapons combined the unlimited ammo supply of lasers with the bullets intendancy to overheat as much. The only downside to plasma weapons was that the energy core had to be replaced every couple thousand shots, but that was a small disadvantage considering the fact that plasma didn't affect organic objects. That meant that a single plasma bolt could pass through whole buildings and even armor before hitting their target.

"Well guys, we can worry about this later. Go and get some rest," Fox and Adder said at the same time. They looked at each other for a moment, and then went to rest. However, Adder had bigger problems.

He went to the medical tent and found a soldier who had been heavily shot. Medics were crowded all around him saying things like, "He's not gonna make it."; "Damage looks bad."; and others Adder couldn't hear.

"Step aside, at ease soldiers," Adder said as he looked at the patient. "What happened?"

"He was hit by several plasma bolts," a feline medic answered. "We can fix the damage, but the patient's going through to much pain that he'll die from cardiac arrest. The IV drugs aren't doing any good."

Adder opened his jaw and extended his fangs. He took a drop of his venom and put it into one of the open blood vessels. "Just enough neurotoxin to relieve his pain, but far from a lethal dose," Adder nodded. Almost immediately, the patient's heartbeat slowed. Star Fox had been watching the whole thing.

"What's the deal with Adder?" Fox asked Brutus and Ace. "First he asks to be alone and doesn't care for anyone else, slaughters a whole battalion, then he goes and saves a guys life!" Brutus and Ace looked at each other.

"I'll tell 'em," Brutus said to Ace. He turned to Star Fox and motioned for them to sit down near the fire. Brutus continued when he sat down, "Adder used to be a very nice fellow and wouldn't have a care for the world and its sufferings. But first, I'll have to tell you about his childhood…"

* * *

Well. That was chapter 3, my first horrid attempt to mash everyone's perspectives into a single chapter. I have to say that I failed miserably in that regard. Things will start to kick off after chapter 5, though.

At any rate, I hope you guys and gals are still bearing with me on this. I do wish that you enjoy my story so far.


	4. Chapter 4: A Dark Past

Chapter 4: A Dark Past

October 24, 2361

1926 hours

Fortuna

Brutus continued with his story with the Star Fox team listening attentively, "As we all know, snakes are the Lylat system's most hated species." he continued. "We frequently were beaten without any hope for being helped by authorities. We didn't know why we were. It could be our longevity, as we can live for a few centuries, it could be our bodies- I dunno. Ace got the worst treatment since he's an albino. Show him your back." Ace turned around and removed his armor. Everyone gasped at what they saw. Ace's back has covered in scars, whip marks, burn marks, puncture wounds, and was heavily bruised. Ace put his armor back on and Brutus continued.

"Some snakes were so infuriated by this that the lived in small villages, were they could live in peace. Adder lived in one of these communities on Venom. They didn't have much technology, but they were safe from persecution. The McBannon family was the ruling family in the village and his father was the ruler of the whole community, so Adder led a peaceful life there. He made many friends and was very happy, even though his mother died giving birth to him. His friends and family was his source of solace. He found peace with his brothers, sisters, and father.

"Unfortunately, there was a war going on in the Lylat System- the war with Andross. The enemy troops built a concentration camp nearby. Those who escaped found the village a perfect place to hide. Adder's people showed their hospitality to them, and they returned their gratitude. It didn't matter that they were different- they were just happy to be alive. Adder made many friends with the escapees.

"However, the camp discovered that the village had been harboring escaped prisoners. They dispatched an army to the village. Adder went hunting at the time. He caught killed enough game with his father's shotgun to feed the village for days, so he raced back home to bring the news. What he saw devastated him.

"The army had burned down the entire village and had taken the survivors as prisoners. They were to be put to death in the hour. Adder, learning this, raced toward the concentration camp. He wasn't touched by a single laser and killed all of personnel with the shotgun, minus the warden, who escaped. Adder had arrived too late. His friends and family were all killed. Adder was the only survivor of the execution. He then buried each and every one of his people and burned the bodies of the personnel. Knowing of the treatment he would receive when he entered the city, he prepared for his long journey to the capital of Venom. Adder vowed on his father's grave that he would make a better world for all snakes- one where they would never face discrimination or persecution just for being themselves. He never returned to his village.

"At the city, he obviously received harsh treatment. People took advantage of his status in society and charged him extra for all goods he purchased- even the little food he could afford. Adder had to live on the streets- cold, hungry, and miserable. There was one thing he wanted more than anything else- even more than food. Vengeance.

"He joined the military at six-years-old, which would be like twenty-four in your years. He was brutally treated there, but he worked with a vigor no one had ever seen before. Despite his status, he rose through the ranks- he was even asked to be general of the Cornerian army! But, he declined and joined the Black-Ops unit, where he met Ace and me. Over the many decades that followed, we went through many missions together and became good friends. Years passed and eventually Aloysius and Cris joined us.

"We were granted status of the highest kind- we worked extremely hard to become who we are today, but you see us as you see now- Star Serpent." Brutus finished his tale.

"I never would have guessed that he went through that much pain and anguish to become who he is today." Fox said sympathetically.

"Yeah," Marcus added. "He went through a great deal of suffering."

"Do you know why he wants to be alone in his room aboard the _Dreadnought_?" Ace asked. "It's because he's paying his respects to his deceased family."

"Wait," Krystal said. "You said that Adder's family was the ruling tribe in his village. Does that mean-"

"Yes." Brutus finished. "He's the last of his family. Everyone else is dead. Adder is the last of his sub-species. He's probably going to be the last cobra-pit viper hybrid there'll ever be."

"I feel sorry for him." Falco said. "I-" Falco was interrupted as Adder walked up to them.

"Fox," he said. "Walk with me. Bring your blasters just in case."

"I'll be back in a bit." Fox said to his team. He got up and walked with Adder into the jungle. Fox's eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Neither spoke for several minutes. "So Brutus told you?" Adder asked and broke the silence.

"Yeah," Fox replied. "I heard it all- the village, the military…"

"Fox," Adder said. He got a good look at his comrade. "You have a lot in common with your father."

"You knew him?!" Fox stammered. "H-How did-"

"I used to be on his team, Fox." Adder continued. "There were five members in the original Star Fox- James McCloud, Pigma Dengar, Peppy Hare, myself, and another individual whose identity you'll learn of soon enough. The latter two were demoted of their status to the public because of who we are." Fox went quiet.

"When that dirty swine Pigma betrayed us," Adder continued with an angry tone. "James conjured up a plan that would save us, but didn't tell us that he would have to sacrifice his life for us. I lost my tail, my legs, and my left arm as a result." Fox never noticed that Adder didn't have a tail like most other snakes, or that he had mechanical legs and arm.

"We each went our separate ways after that. Peppy went to look after you, I rejoined the army, and the last individual made a choice that I'll not tell you yet." Adder spoke.

"Who was that individual?" Fox asked.

"All in due time, Fox," Adder turned to him. "James dying wish was for all of us to protect you at all costs. I will give my life to you to keep you safe." Adder's head snapped up and he pressed Fox against a tree.

"Adder, what are you-" Fox was cut off as he saw the reason. An enemy troop walked by them, not noticing the two because of Adder's black armor that blended in with the tree. The soldier paused, looked around, and motioned something they couldn't see. A whole division of troops and mechs followed the troops towards the camp.

After they had passed, Adder grabbed the soldier at the rear and covered his mouth so he wouldn't scream. While keeping a firm grip on him, Adder interrogated on the soldier.

"Hi there," Adder said in a dark tone. "How many divisions of troops are coming toward the camp? Also specify the number of mechs and the directions they're coming from." The soldier remained silent. Adder realized he was accidentally choking him and loosened his grip. "Sorry about that. Now talk." Adder pulled out his shotgun and pressed it against his head.

"Two divisions of grunts, twenty mechs, and coming from the north-northwest." the soldier grunted.

"Thanks." Adder finished. He broke the soldier's neck. "Did you get all that Ace?" He spoke into his wrist comm.

"Gotcha." Ace replied. "What are your orders?"

"Douse the fires and make it look like everyone's asleep. Use the element of surprise. Adder, over and out. Fox, follow me. Get into position, camouflage yourself, and hit them from the rear." Fox nodded in affirmative and followed Adder. They hid in a pile of leaves, attached silencers and flash hiders to their weapons, and got ready to attack.

The enemy troops entered the camp. Adder flipped over the grenade launcher sight, aimed at a mech, and pulled the trigger. With a muffled hiss of air, the grenade impacted dead center on the head and killed several troops. As the troops looked around for the source, the rest of the Lylatians rose from their hiding spots and attacked. The night suddenly lit up with gunshots, lasers, plasma bolts, and explosions.

Back in the camp, Settler Company took the ambushers by total surprise and hit them hard. The strike force had to retreat, but instead walked right into Adder and Fox's line of fire. Only three mechs and seventeen troops got away, and none of the Lylatian troops suffered any major injuries.

The whole division cheered and whooped as they celebrated their victory. And for the second time, Fox saw Adder smile as he joined in with the celebration. Fox was glad that he got to know him better.

* * *

Pretty much a small chapter with a bit more history on Adder. He's one of my favorite original characters (at least that I've created so far). I go a little bit more in-depth on this stuff in chapter 10, but it's a start. At any rate, next chapter is when it's going to get good. And a bit violent. Anyways, hope you've been enjoying the story so far.


	5. Chapter 5: Infiltration

Chapter 5: Infiltration

November 1, 2361

0630 hours

Fortuna

Several days have passed since the camp was ambushed. The days after that were spent repairing damage to the vehicles and giving medical attention to the wounded troops. Other than those, the days were uneventful.

Adder rose from his tent and observed the early morning. Smoke was drifting from the crackling campfires as breakfast was served. Soldiers were moving about doing their tasks and mechanics were repairing the armored vehicles that were damaged in the few skirmishes.

He walked up to the mess tent, took a bowl of clam chowder, and emptied it in one gulp, thanks to his expandable jaws. With food in his stomach, he went to the CP, or control point, to pick up fresh intel. Ace and Marcus were already there, both of whom were staring at a handheld datapad.

"Good morning," Adder greeted. "Anything of importance today?"

Ace looked up from a datapad and answered, "Actually, yes. Our camp is running low on supplies, sir. We tried to radio in a supply drop, but something scrambled up the signal. Our scouts returned a few minutes ago and reported that a large human complex was found due northwest of our current position by about five miles. That would explain where the enemy divisions came from and why our signals are scrambled. So, what are your orders?"

"Marcus?" Adder asked, "Where's the nearest camp?"

"Delta Company's stationed two miles from here, Adder," Marcus replied after consulting at a map spread over a large table.

"Send a runner over there," the serpent leader ordered. "Tell them to hook up with us and merge our supplies until a fresh batch arrives. Until then, rouse the troops. Ace, I want schematics on that base and the defenses around it." Adder marched away to meet Cris, accidentally walked into her, and knocked the bowl of chowder she was holding out of her hands. They both reached for the bowl at the same time, resulting in both of their hands on top of one another.

"Um…uh, sorry about that," Adder stammered, picking up the bowl and refilling it with chowder. "Kinda in a rush today."

"Same here," Cris blushed. "Heard there's a base nearby."

"Yeah," Adder quickly changed the subject, "well, see you later, um, gotta wake up everyone else." Adder walked away. _Really smooth, Adder._ he thought to himself. Eventually, the rest of Star Fox was awake. Tallon yawned at waking up so early.

"ATTENTION!" Adder bellowed. Every soldier in the camp rushed into a line. "At ease, brothers in arms. In case if you haven't already heard, there's an enemy base nearby. Do you all understand?"

"SIR, YES, SIR!" the troops yelled in perfect unison.

"No, you don't." Adder mocked them. "That base is a mere five miles away and the one that nearly had us sleeping in a crypt the other night. That base is sure to have vital intel on the humans' next movements, as well as their motives for the invasion," He paused as Ace ran up to him and handed him his datapad. Adder quickly skimmed over the info and looked blankly back at the albino, "Are you absolutely sure about this?"

"Yes, sir," replied the wunderkind. "I believe you understand what that means."

"Damn," the serpent leader cursed, then turned back to the troops. "Well, apparently, a full-scale attack's not gonna work here, people! The defenses of that installation are going to be difficult to take out with a small division as this, so you can rest for today."

As the troops groaned from getting up for nothing and Adder walked away, Ace continued walking with his superior commander and spoke flatly, "You lied."

"Of course," Adder responded, "I don't want them to think I'm committing suicide."

"Well, it practically is, considering what you're gonna have to do."

Falco happened to overhear the conversation and asked, "Hey, whatcha guys talkin' about?"

"I'll explain in a moment," Adder answered, "Get the rest of your team and meet me here asap. Ace, do the same for Star Serpent."

After a few moments, the two teams were assembled in front of him, and he began once all other soldiers were out of earshot, "As you know, the attack on the nearby human installation had just been cancelled, correct? In a way, it's not. Though the defenses of the facility are meant to deter and to defend against large amounts of soldiers, it won't do much against a stealthy individual."

"So what're you trying to imply?" asked Krystal. "That one of us is going to take on the entire installation alone?"

"Spot-on, and you're looking at the one who's doing it."

After a few seconds of silent staring at the serpent, Fox spoke, "So you're telling us you're going to take on a heavily defended facility…along? That's practically suicide!"

"True, but this is a jack of all trades you're all staring at. Aloysius, if you remember?"

"Yeah, but are you sure you can pull this off, Adder?" Aloysius inquired. For the first time in a while, he actually looked quite worried. "You haven't done this kind of stuff for quite a while."

"I'll be fine," Adder replied. "All of you just hang out unto nightfall. I'm getting ready."

The pit viper-cobra hybrid returned to his tent. Ever since the war began, he'd been anticipating an opportunity like this. He got out a cardboard box which contained all sorts of armor and stealth weapons. Adder just smiled. _It's been a long time, but I'll manage,_ he thought.

He started by first changing out of his combat armor and got into a matte black temperature suit, which he used to erase his thermal signature. He then donned a black trench coat and tied a black bandana around his head just being his eyes. Lastly, Adder placed a set of blood-red polarized sunglasses on his snout. _Just like the good ol' days._

The snake then moved onto the weaponry. He attached a two-pronged energy scythe to his left mechanical arm along with a loop of piano wire. He also brought along an EMP disruptor and a few explosive grenades in case things got dicey. They all fit comfortably inside his trench coat's many inner pockets.

Next were his firearms. First to come were two Desert Eagle Mk-VI Assault Pistols, which were only a bit larger than a standard semi-automatic pistol. He frowned, then attached two long silencers onto the barrels, and compensated for the lack of muzzle velocity by replacing the rounds in his magazines with anti-personnel rounds with a larger caliber. Though having less armor-penetrating capability, anti-personnel rounds were gas-expanding, meaning that once embedded in an object, the gas inside the bullets would expand, causing the round to fragment much like a regular grenade. That caused even more internal damage inside bodies than armor-piercing or standard bullets. Holstering the pistols to his hips, he then grabbed two AK-94 Light Assault Rifles, outfitted them with silencers and laser charges, started the up the charges with a high-pitched whine, and then holstered them to his back in an X-shape. He was about to button up his trench coat, but decided against it. The whole outfitting had taken about fifteen minutes, including modifying his weapons. He stepped out of his tent.

Everybody stared at him- even the mechanics got out from underneath the tanks, wondering what in the world that green cobra-pit viper hybrid was doing in such an awkward suit. Both Star Fox and Star Serpent were no exceptions

"Whoa," Tallon gazed at him, slightly intimidated. "Sweet outfit."

"You look perfect for this mission," Aloysius commented, "Haven't seen you wear that for over a decade."

"Thanks, Aloysius," Adder replied with a slightly darker tone than usual. He pulled out his pistols, which along with the silencers, were about ten inches long. "I'll show you how a professional Stealth-Ops soldier gets things done."

"Um, it's only ten in the morning." Krystal raised an eyebrow. "And why do you need silencers for those things?" Adder responded by pulling the silencers off of one of his assault pistols and fired. The single shot sounded like thunder and reverberated through the camp, making even the most battle-hardened veteran twitch and forced everyone to cover their ears. Aloysius, having extremely sensitive hearing, put both hands to the part of the helmet where his ears were under and started cursing like crazy.

"That's why," Adder replied. "Now rest. Night's not for another eight hours. Meet me at the enemy base, and bring your weapons just in case.

* * *

Night had fallen quickly in Fortuna. Star Fox and Star Serpent had assembled about a half-mile away from the humans' base in the cover of the thick foliage. Seeing the defenses, Fox groaned in dismay. The base was about two square miles long, and whole complex was surrounded by barbed wire, stationary gun emplacements, MGs, searchtowers with spotlights sweeping wide, flak guns, missile launchers, artillery emplacements, and a small minefield. Inside the base however, was a different story.

Mechs, tanks, and hundreds of soldiers patrolled the installation- a three story building topped with radar dishes, helicopters, and antennae. The mechs, however, drew everyone's attention. They were of a different variant than the ones they had seen during the ambush several nights ago. The armor looked significantly thicker, and they were armed with rocket launchers and heavy chainguns. Even with all of that inside, Fox couldn't think of any way Adder could even bypass the outer defenses of the base. Just looking at it all made Fox whimper involuntarily.

Krystal squeezed his hand. The couple looked at each other and smiled a little. "Don't worry, Fox," Krystal whispered. "He'll find a way."

"Yes, I will," Everyone jumped and spun around to see Adder leaning on a tree trunk.

"Please, don't do that again Adder." Marcus sighed, lowering his rifle.

"Sorry." Adder sarcastically apologized.

"Adder," Fox shook his then turned towards the base, "How are you gonna get in there? There's all sorts of stuff waiting for you in there! Arty emplacements, MGs, barbed wire on the outside, and-"

"Dad," Tallon whispered softly.

"-on the inside there are dozens of tanks, armed soldiers, mechs-"

"Dad!" his older son whispered louder.

"What?" Fox asked, slightly irritated from the interruption. Tallon pointed to the electric fence. Adder was already over and nobody else noticed until now.

"Wait, but how did- He was…Why didn't we…Oh, man, he's good," Fox whispered harshly. "Alright everyone, remember our orders. Sit tight and get ready to provide covering fire if things get hectic."

The commandos-for-hire crouched tense, hoping that Adder wasn't too in over his head in this one.

* * *

The guard was extremely tired. He'd been on his shift for three hours already, and he let out a sleepy yawn. He doubted that the Lylatians had even learned of their presence here, and they probably lacked the firepower to do anything about it anyways. He reached for the bell to signal for the next shift and go to the barracks for some well-deserved R&R, but pain erupted through his body, making him stand rigid. He fell dead on the ground before he knew that Adder's fangs had entered his flesh.

The serpent smiled to himself. _First kill of the night._ he thought. He peeked around the corner and saw hundreds of soldiers on patrol. If it wasn't obvious before, a head-on approach would definitely be ruled suicidal. Adder hid the body and noticed a ladder leading to the rooftop. He climbed onto it, ascending two rungs at a time. Near the top, he spotted the optic probe over the top and found a lone guard, smoking a cigar.

Adder vaulted over the top and uncoiled the piano wire. He snuck up to the guard, whipped the wire over his head, and pulled on his neck. He kicked his legs over the roof, yanked hard, and heard the sickening crack of his neck. After pulling the guard back on the rooftop, he kicked the body into a dark corner. The hybrid snake spotted an entry to the stairwell and hid next to it.

Several minutes passed until a human popped out of the doors with a hiss and announced, "Hey, you're your shift's-"

Adder didn't let him finish his sentence. He grabbed his neck and pulled out a Desert Eagle Mk-VI, and, with a small wisp of air, emptied a round into his head, spraying its insides all over the wall ahead of him. He dropped the body just as another person was heading out, grabbed the soldier's jaw with his left arm, and pushed it into is forehead. The sentry was dead before he even hit the ground. Adder pulled out the second Desert Eagle and headed in.

He was confronted in a small weapons storage room by four sentries. Adder kicked the first one down and shot the rest before they could react, pockmarking the walls with bullet holes and blood. The soldier he kicked tried to get up, but Adder shot him in the face. After reloading the pistols, Adder went to the door and found it pressure-sealed. No way he was getting in there.

Adder went back onto the roof and spotted a skylight on the other side. He holstered the pistols and took out his AK-94 LARs, pulled back their actions, and turned off the safeties.

He crashed through the skylight and began mowing down the soldiers with his fully-automatic fire with silent clicks of his LAG's. Blood splattered onto the hallway's floor and walls. No one had heard him because of the silencers.

He closed his eyes and activated his thermal imaging organs, then activated the EMP disruptor. The lights in the whole building went out. He could already see in the next room that soldiers were panicking and raising their rifles. However, Adder noticed that their weapons gave off a high heat signature- far too high for any regular one. They were plasma-equipped.

Adder kicked open the door, guns blazing and neutralized the threats. He then picked up two compact plasma sub-machine guns, which were roughly the size of his pistols, stowed away the LAG's and checked their charges. They were both a full charge. Adder noticed that enemies had heard him and were waiting on the other side. He merely shook his head and primed a grenade.

Seconds later, the whole wall was blown down and Adder leapt over the debris. Time seemed to slow as he entered bullet-time and fired several plasma bolts. The red bolts found their targets and cut them down, burning holes in the bodies and the wall after passing through their armor. He then landed on a hapless soldier and bit into his neck. The soldier fell to the guard, spasmodic from the neurotoxin. Time went to a normal pace again and Adder checked the next room. It was a computer database. _Perfect,_ he thought.

He kicked the door off of its hinges, plasma rifles ready. The whole room was empty, and he relaxed. Adder cocked his head then holstered his plasma rifles. He went up to a computer and turned it on. The screen flickered to life and asked for a password. Adder frowned. He pulled out his plasma rifle and took out his piano wire. He linked the charge to the wire and fed it into the hard-drive. He clicked the trigger. The screen instantly flickered and went to the menu. _Outdated technology,_ Adder thought. He sat in the chair and started looking for any useful intel.

Several minutes passed. Adder was starting to get impatient, but found a file titled, "Objectives of Invasion." He clicked on it. His eyes widened at the following:

**Main objective: Follow guidelines for the energy siphon of the planets of the Lylat System. Current planets under siphon- Venom, Fichina, Fortuna, Aquas, Zoness, Macbeth. Also begin transferring energy to EECP.**

**Secondary objective 1: Exterminate the inhabitants of the planets. Failure to do so will result in the compromisation of the main objective. Extermination under way. **

**Secondary objective 2: Erase all trace of passage.**

Adder read the information again. The humans were siphoning the planet's energy. But for what? And how? Adder didn't know. Obviously they were siphoning plants at different planets, and they were underway on Fortuna already. The humans were exterminating the Lylatians, but everyone already knew that. As for erasing all trace of their passage, that meant that they also wanted to destroy the entire system. _Why is everybody always trying to destroy us all?_ Adder frowned. This information cleared up some issues, but many others were obscured by the fog. He found another file titled, "Research and Development" and clicked on it.

Adder almost cursed out loud. The humans had fooled the Lylat System in the first few battles, showing their more obsolete tech. But in this file were the blueprints of strange, legged tanks, two neo-age fighter designs, several different mech designs, active camo armor, plasma weaponry, and last, but definitely the worst, directed energy weapons. Most of these projects were still in R&D but progressing fast. Adder got out a floppy disk and saved the info onto it. There was one thing left to do now. Set them up the bomb.

He got out a small explosive, stuck it to the floor, and activated it. He wirelessly linked it to a remote detonator. Now it was time to get the hell out before the whole facility lights up like a firework.

Adder went back the way he came, leapt through the skylight, and jumped to the ground. Unfortunately, he attracted some attention.

One of the newer mechs, which he now knew to be the deadly assault-class mech, caught sight of him and primed its weapons. It roared at him, attracting even more mechs to the fray. _Dang!_ he thought. He started firing his plasma rifles at them, but the shots passed through them. He then remembered that plasma affected only organic matter. The first mech let out a high-pitched screech and started running towards Adder, chainguns blazing. The rest followed suit.

Adder performed a back flip to dodge the deadly stream of bullets and holstered his plasma rifles. He pulled out his LAG's and started peppering the mechs with heavy fire. The lasers were deflected off of the reflective armor. He then pulled out the Desert Eagles and opened fire as he dodged another volley of shots. The rounds merely ricocheted off of the hull. The mech dashed at him and rammed him.

Adder flew a whole ten yards before slamming into a wall with a loud grunt. He reholstered the pistols and extended his double-bladed energy scythe on his left arm, the golden blades lighting up the darkness. He leapt onto a mech and cut into the head-turret, stabbing its CPU and neutralizing the mech. The mech then fired a rocket at Adder, who held the blades in front of his face, cutting it in half before it reached him, the halves harmlessly bouncing on the ground. Adder leapt onto the other mech and sliced its head in half. The last mech attempted to ram him again, but Adder effortlessly side-stepped the dash and cut the mech's legs off, causing it to fall flat on the ground, helpless as its head-turret was decapitated.

Several klaxons rang in the distance and a tank appeared around the corner. Adder ran as fast as he could, ignoring his fatigue. Machine gun fire and tank shots blew holes in the concrete near him. Adder leapt over the electric fence to safety. He kept on running and met his comrades half a mile away.

"Adder! You're alright!" Cris sighed in relief after catching sight of him.

"Nice timing, Adder," Fox said. "Well?"

"Well…what?" Adder heavily breathed, tired from the long run.

"How did it go?" Fox answered. Adder smiled and pulled out a remote detonator. He clicked two buttons, unlocked the safeties and revealing a trigger. He pulled it.

The night was lit up as the thirty-megaton explosive obliterated the facility, creating a gorgeous fireworks display as the inferno reached the minefield and set the explosives off. Everyone but Adder and Aloysius ducked down and shielded their eyes.

"Woooo, sweet job, Adder!" Ace cheered, his inner child getting the best of him. "Let's have a party!"

"Tired…must…rest," Adder spoke. He fell to the ground, already sound asleep.

Everyone stared at him. Tallon laughed, "Hah, does he always do that after a mission like that?"

"You get used to it," Brutus replied. "If you thought this was amazing, you should see what Adder did during the Aparoid war! There was once a time where he infiltrated an aparoid-held base and…" Ace dug into one of Adder's pockets as Brutus continued with his story and pulled out a floppy disk. He popped it into his datapad. As the screen began displaying the downloaded information, Ace's eyes widened.

"Guys," Ace interrupted. "There's more to this war than we thought."

* * *

Alright, now this is where stuff starts getting good. If you can't already tell, som of the most prominent parts of my fanfic series are the elaborate fight scenes. :P

Anyways, the humans are definitely going to get a lot more technologically-advanced from here on in. So yes. All that low-tech stuff was just a fake-out. The humans have a lot more stuff than just bullets and outdated fighter jets for the Lylatians to face.

Anyways, I do hope you've been enjoying the story. Remember to leave a comment or a review if you can!


	6. Chapter 6: Eagle Strike

_Chapter 6: Eagle Strike_

December 12, 2361

0000 hours

Inside the _Dreadnought_

The monotonous beeping of the alarm clock filled the hangar of the _Dreadnought_ with its irritating noise. Ace groggily got off of the floor mat and started banging on the alarm clock's off button with his fist. _No luck, _he thought with a got really ticked off about the alarm clock now. He got out a pistol, pulled back the action, and shot the clock dead. He brushed aside the glass and found it to be midnight. _Stupid clock. Well, since I'm up already I might as well do some work._ He tossed the smoking pistol aside and remembered where he was.

Ace had a habit of sleeping in their mothership's gigantic hangar on a floor mat. He didn't really like any luxuries when sleeping, like most of his fellow team members. The hangar was where he worked on his many inventions and gizmos, and it was where he repaired the battered armor and vehicles of the teams. The whole office area around him was cluttered with tools, blueprints, and equipment- large and small, complete and broken. The rest of the hangar, however, proved very spacious. Tanks, jeeps, fighters, and even mobile artillery laid to his right, while the armory with all its weapons and armor was down the left. He didn't know why he liked their hangar- he just did. Maybe it was the fact that it was the only room that could hold his precious inventions and confabulations, or it contained the tools necessary to work on them...or both.

Ace casually walked to his desk, which held a weird, incomplete weapon. He procured a face-shield from a cluttered drawer, flipped it down, lit a blow torch, made sure the room was sealed for silence, and let the sparks fly on his creation. After laying down a barrel, he welded it to the empty husk of the weapon. He then measured out a piece of metal and, using an electronic jigsaw, sawed two small pieces off, which would later form the trigger guard and stock of the gun. He consulted his blueprints, locked the stock in place, and welded the trigger guard directly _inside _of the gun.

This manner of gunsmithing and craftsmanship continued for the next hour. Ace had made many different pieces of metal, which took the form of metal spikes, the loading mechanism, the sight, and many others. After a bit of welding, the gun was finished. Ace threaded a foot-long spike of metal into the top of the gun just above the part where the hand was supposed to enter and headed for the firing range for testing.

After two minutes, he reached it, found the anti-armor section and readied a target- a foot-and-a-half of grade-A titanium. He stuck his hand directly into the gun, found the trigger within, and extended the stock. Ace aimed down the sight and fired. The blast reverberated through the firing range, making a few poorly maintained light bulbs nearby flash uncontrollably. He whistled at the result. The piece of jagged metal that he fired went all the way through the titanium and into the wall behind it. He had made the first single-hand armor-piercing weapon. He checked the length of the cylinder he had used for ammunition; there was about eight inches, or two shots, left.

Ace opened fire twice more, pockmarking the armor and the wall behind it. He checked result. Where once stood a gigantic piece of tank armor was a mess of metal. The armor had been blown off of the wall itself and three fist-sized holes were left in it. Ace smiled. _One invention made, approximately five-hundred-thirty-two left for this month,_ he thought proudly, giving a quick nod of satisfaction.

He headed back into the hangar, gingerly placed the weapon in a box, went to a nearby transfer device, and typed in the address for Cornerian R&D Department. A small portal appeared nearby and Ace sent the box through. _Slippy will get a kick out of that,_ smiled with the memory of the toad's occupation.

Ace moved on to his next creations, constructing them with unrivaled zest and pleasure. The next shipments to R&D were grenades made from dry ice, reverse-engineered plasma weaponry, and a small coilgun that fired shrapnel in a shotgun-esque spread at Mach 1. He checked his military watch. It read 0230 hours. Two hours and thirty minutes had passed since he woke up, and four weapons had been sent for mass production. Falco walked through the entryway of the matte black room and stopped, watching as the serpent started welding together what looked like a landmine with small treads on its side.

"Yo, Ace!" Falco yelled over the noise of the blow torch. Ace stopped, removed the face shield, and looked at the disturbance of his life's passion.

"Oh, hey Falco," Ace let the rest of his confabulations wait for next time and turned to the avian. "You don't usually wake up this early."

"I _don't_," Falco grumbled. "Someone apparently went to the firing range and started blowing holes in tank armor and generated sonic booms with a supersonic coilgun!"

"Ah, sorry about that, Falco." Ace apologized.

"Meh, whatever," Falco replied. "Anyways, I wanted to see what kind of fighters you have here. Looked pretty sweet when we were dogfighting over Titania."

"Come," Ace beckoned, happy that he found an ace that would listen to him about his inventions. The pair came across Star Serpent's signature fighter. It still held its three-pronged structure, four-wing design, and heavy armaments. The pit viper smiled and flickered his tongue just looking at its brilliant metallic sheen.

"What you see here," Ace started, "is the Bloody Maw, our signature star-and-atmospheric assault fighter. This baby has a tip-to-tail armor of grade-A feltaniom armor- light, sturdy, and easy on the eyes. Bullets just ricochet off of the hull and lasers barely penetrate it. Oh, and plasma is actually absorbed into the shield and converted into ammunition and fuel, much like when your arwings perform barrel rolls. Try touching it."

Falco tried to touch the fighter, but met resistance a centimeter from the armor. He tried to tap it again, but met the same resistance. Ace took out an Uzi-32 off a nearby shelf and fired three times. A semi-transparent of yellow, green, and orange illuminated the entire ship, shimmering where the bullets hit, disintegrating them entirely.

"Only high-power lasers can burst this shield in one hit. The rest take a little longer," Ace continued. The two stepped to the rear of the fighter. At the rear were only two hyper-static plasma engines that Falco saw- the other two had disappeared. They were replaced with Takashi-class thrusters.

"These four engines together have an output of a max speed of now Mach One-point-seven, due to the revisions I made. Cool down period after the afterburner is exhausted is only-" Ace thought carefully, computing the data, "…inertia, rooted by acceleration, multiplied by potential and kinetic energy… Two seconds, max. I doubt that this baby can be rivaled in air combat." They proceeded to the port side, which was littered with weapons.

"We've got four heavy laser machine guns, two standard missile launchers, a bottom-mounted photovoltaic railgun, and a rear-mounted, rear-facing flak cannon in the default mode." Ace spoke.

"Sweeeeeet," Falco smiled, then asked. "Wait, `default mode'?" Ace took out a small hologram projector and activated it. A three-dimensional ghost of the Bloody Maw appeared.

"The Bloody Maw has four different configurations," Ace explained. "What you see right now is the default mode- multi-purpose." He clicked a button on the projector and the wings changed position. They became broader and slightly bulkier, while slightly jutting more outwards. The fighter now had a larger, more daunting shape.

"This is the assault mode," the albino continued. "Basically it sacrifices speed for defensive and offensive capabilities. The HMGs convert into autocannons. Unfortunately, the railgun, flak cannon, and missile launchers take longer to fire or charge up, but are heavier in grade and cause greater damage. Plus, the shields get even thicker. This is the mode we usually use to take down capital ships." He pressed the button again. This time, the top wings changed to an exactly vertical position, while the bottom wings changed into a forty-degree angle. The hull also became sleeker and more shark-like.

"Here is the interceptor mode," the serpent continued his explanation. "It sacrifices the shielding power, but significantly raises the speed. The top speed now escalates to one-point-seven-five Machs. The HMGs now change to miniguns- a force to reckon with, though inaccurate at longer ranges. The missiles, railgun, and flak cannon fire quickly, but are less potent. Also, the shields are reduced to a point that bullets can penetrate it with a few shots." He pressed the button one more time. The hull quickly became more jagged and the wings collapsed into the chassis. The fighter totally lost its color and turned transparent.

"Whoa, did this thing run out of batteries or something?" Falco queried.

"Not at all," Ace said smugly. "This is the stealth mode. It's completely invisible to radar and plasma will just pass right through it, not even injuring the pilot. Also, the hull becomes coated with the shielding and fuses with it, resulting with the fighter being harder than diamond. It'll be able to cut all the way through a capital ship. Unfortunately, this mode drains immense energy, cutting engine power down a ton and is unable to fire any projectiles. Okay, I'm done."

"That is one sweet fighter," Falco commented. "Never since my Sky Claw have I seen such a perfect ship."

"Thanks," Ace grinned. "I've been working on these babies for months. At least someone other than my teammates recognize my ingenuity."

"I wonder if I could-" Falco was cut off by an intercom system.

"ALL PERSONNEL TO THE COMMAND DECK," ROB announced in his monotonous, robotic voice, "I REPEAT, ALL PERSONNEL TO THE COMMAND DECK. GENERAL PEPPER HAS SENT A TRANSMISSION." Ace and Falco looked at each other, nodded, and proceeded to a pneumatic lift which carried them to the main deck. After ten seconds of brisk walking, they were in the entry way for the _Dreadnought'_s command deck/ op-center. Falco's beak stood wide open as he gazed at the interior.

Computers and hologram projectors lined the deck, where ROB was typing away with the devices and interfaces. Devices for navigation, weapon control, and communication stood there. The team waited past the computers in a sort of lobby connected to the command deck via stairway where ten command chairs stood, where they sat. Ace somersaulted through the air and landed in his seat. Falco just sat in it.

"You take all the fun out of it!" Ace whined.

"Ace! Quiet and listen for the transmission," Adder ordered.

"Opening communications channel." ROB spoke. The room darkened and the windshield closed. A hologram projector rose in the center of the chairs. It turned on and a TV show appeared, with a weird cartoon about dolphins on it. Everyone stared blankly at the operations droid.

"My apologies," ROB spoke. "I am not yet accustomed to these controls. Wait a moment." The TV turned off, and was replaced by the floating head of a hawk.

"Hey!" Fox exclaimed. "You're not Supreme General Pepper!"

"No I am not," the hawk said in a voice devoid of emotion. "I am General Halcyon- your commanding officer for the duration of… some time. Supreme General Pepper is currently under intense protection, as the location of the command building has been compromised, so he is in an underground bunker. I am the substitute. I am…expendable."

"Alright, then," Adder crossed his arms. "Why have you contacted us?"

"We have a mission for you, members of Star Fox and Star Serpent," Halcyon continued, still emotionless. "Our intelligence officers have uncovered a research lab on Fichina." He paused as another hologram projector next to him displayed the snowy planet of Fichina. A small section was highlighted and zoomed in on what appeared to be a chain of human buildings. Long pipes connected them together. "This transmission was received a few hours ago," Halcyon turned his head, "Carser. Play that transmission- audio only." The speakers boomed the following:

"_Command, this is Zeta-Four! I've discovered some kind of research facility. Johnson, what are the coordinates? We gotta take this place out," _A few seconds passed. _"Johnson? Johnson?"_ A slightly electronic noise filled the background. Then an inhuman roar filled the speakers. _"Oh…my…God!"_ the soldiers voice became shaky and filled with fear. _"OH MY GOD! CALLING FOR EVAC NOW! HELP!" _The sound of footsteps crunching through the snow filled the speakers. The soldier was running from something. And that something was chasing him- the sound of mechanical movement was heard. _"I NEED THAT EVAC ASAP! HELP! HOLY-" _What followed next sounded as if the creature leapt in front of the soldiers, along withthe sound of bones crunching. Screaming filled the speakers before an electric whine made it all but inaudible. An explosion of energy sounded off and a single last scream was heard. Then… nothing. Mechanical footsteps were heard near the radio. An electric voice spoke into the radio, _"Foolish inferior beings…The humans and my kind are superior to all other species, yours included. Your destruction is imminent- it is the will of God. We are merely His tools of judgment." _A blast was sounded and the radio filled with white noise. The line went dead. Suddenly, the room went cold. Ace shuddered from the eerie feeling.

"Your mission," Halcyon continued, "is to assist a squadron of fighters in covering a group of bombers as they destroy that facility. Whatever is being done there is far too important- that…thing was definitely protecting it. This is a high-priority mission, so you must…not…fail. Until then, I will wait for the result." The transmission went dead. The hologram projector went back into the floor and the windshields reopened, revealing the darkness of space.

"ROB! Get us to Fichina ASAP!" Fox ordered.

"Negative," ROB chimed back. "Not enough velocity to reach Fichina before the bombing run begins."

"ROB, see that red button on your left?" Adder pointed at a spot on the control console, "Enter in Fichina's coordinates after pressing it." ROB did as he was ordered, "Hang on everybody. Buckle up." Everyone rushed to strap themselves in.

"What kind of warp drive does this ship have?" Krystal queried.

"None," Cris replied.

"None?!" Tallon exclaimed, "What did that button do?"

"We have no warp drive," Aloysius wheezed through his apparatus, "We use something called slipstream."

"Slipstream?" Marcus asked.

"Here's how it works," Ace explained. "This ship dematerializes itself, channels its atomic structure into a beam of energy, and enters a dimensional rift to get to a destination faster than with conventional warping. We literally slip through a planar stream of space, giving the method of travel its name. Now, I suggest you all grab hold of something on the ship to avoid getting your atomic signature scrambled. Even you, ROB."

Everyone braced as a thin beam of energy fired from the tip of the _Dreadnought_'s prow. The beam extended for a dozen meters in front of the mothership then stopped. A boisterous explosion rushed out from the depths of space, revealing a hole in the space-time continuum. In that hole was Fichina, a celestial sphere mixed with white and speckled blue. The ship shuddered and groaned, and then a bright light engulfed the command deck, covering the entire ship. Ace, as well as everyone else, had a feeling of weightlessness for one second. Then the _Dreadnought_ zoomed through the dimensional rift, and then… nothing. Ace looked up. The white, snowy planet was outside the windshield.

"_Dreadnought_," a voice echoed through the comm line. "this is the ULS _Dredge_. Our bombers are waiting for you, and there's also someone who wants to talk to you." Everyone leaned forward, anticipating a good friend.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" a canine's face filled up the hologram projector. He wore a green flight jumpsuit with a white vest over it. His helmet covered his head, and it came with a transparent, black lens for famed pilot to see through. His ears simply stuck out of holes at the top of the helmet.

"Well if it isn't Bill Grey!" Fox greeted. "Nice to see ya again, friend!"

"That's _Lieutenant_ Grey to you, Fox," Bill replied, showing off the medals on his uniform. "Got promoted after the Anglar war. Our fighters are just about ready for you guys. Didn't think you would be the only ones helping out, eh?"

"The famous Bill Grey- we meet at last," Brutus commented. "Well, you ready Adder?" Adder moved for the first time since the briefing.

"Affirmative," he nodded, "Grey, meet us surface-side. ROB, prepare for atmospheric deployment. Comrades, get to hangar- on the double!" Bill's hologram faded out and the allies headed to the different pneumatic lifts that carried each to their own section of the hangar.

* * *

Fox decided that it was best that they use their specialized arwings for this mission. The team headed down to a spacious hangar, where Fichina's never-ending blizzard blew through the opening, sending frost everywhere. Fox went up to a power strip and flipped a switch. Five different arwings rose up from the floor, each one custom-made for each of the pilots.

Fox's arwing was the latest in the tech- the Arwing II. Although sacrificing twin lasers for one, it was faster, more maneuverable, featured a better lock-on system, and carried more weapons. Other than the fact that it was a little shorter than the original and the thruster was larger, nothing had changed.

The Cloud Runner was Krystal's personalized starfighter. It sported twin lasers with single lock-on and a single bomb. The cockpit jutted out from the rest of the body, which was boomerang-shaped, in the shape of an elongated diamond. Two laser pods were mounted under the wings, and a tail-like structure extended from the rear over the engine.

The ace pilot, Falco, owned the Sky Claw- an even faster version of the arwing, though not shielded as much. It made up for low defense with a single laser cannon that could lock onto multiple targets- up to eight- at one time. It looked much like the Arwing II, except it was longer, both in length and wingspan; the wings faced forward with feather-like tips, and the prow was sharp enough to skewer an enemy fighter.

Marcus's ship, the Longshot, had only one laser cannon- a deadly, long-range perpetual laser beam cannon- AKA the Zapper laser, a deadly weapon, although slow to fire. Although it featured no bombs or lock on, the defensive capabilities were dramatically increased, as well as its speed. The wings formed an upside-down Y-shaped configuration with the cannon located underneath the cockpit, which remained in the center of the starship directly in front of the engine. So far, only Marcus has used the Longshot to its full potential, due to his marksmanship.

Tallon's custom fighter was the Lochjaw- a dangerous fighter to reckon with. Although it had no laser systems, it featured two missile pods, which could fire salvo after salvo of rechargeable missile ammunition into the breech. It boasted high defense and speed, but had no lasers, restricting the fighter to medium-ranged dogfighting. The Lochjaw was an X-shaped fighter- two wings jutting to the front that held the missile pods, two jutting to the rear, each with an engine under it. The cockpit was under the hull, and due to this, could act as a fighter-bomber with its heavy payload of ten rechargeable bombs, which plunged deep into the crust before it exploded with a large amount of force.

The pilots leaped through the canopies of their fighters, where after a few button presses, established comm signals. The canopies closed and the room went completely dark.

"ROB, initiate launch," Fox ordered. The room glowed a dark red and the fighters lurched out of the hangar door and into Fichina's atmosphere, where the bombers were waiting.

* * *

Ace followed his team to an entryway which led to the armory. Everyone, except for Aloysius, who already had his armor on, got into a flight suit personalized to fit their character.

Adder just had a plain black flight suit. He never liked to go out of the box that often when it came to armor. His flight suit was covered in holes and scratches, which spoke of much experience in aviation.

Brutus' suit was also black, but had more decals to it. He had a spiked collar, which protected his vulnerable neck from injury. Instead of flight gloves, he wore gauntlets with magnetized grips so he wouldn't lose control of his fighter due to sweating palms.

Cris wore an ivory white jumpsuit. Although it was pink in areas near her forearms and on her thighs, nothing else was noticeable… except for her flight helmet, which was a light, one-way-transparent green and covered her entire head.

Ace picked up his own flight suit- a silver-plated chrome suit, which highlighted his white scales. He, like Brutus, wore magnetized gauntlets, as well as a helmet that had a clear lens, although it only covered the top portion of his head, due to his jaws.

Everyone was in their flight suits in less than thirty seconds and rushed to a wall that was lined with five different elevators. Adder, Cris, Brutus, Ace, and Aloysius went into the elevators, left-to-right in that order.

Ace hung onto the circular railings of his own elevator and it rushed down at fifty miles per hour. Before he reached the end, he grabbed an oxygen apparatus and attached it to his exposed mouth and looped it to an air tank on his back. The elevator hit the bottom with a dull thud.

Everyone rushed out into the hangar, where five of the Bloody Maws laid suspended from the ceiling, canopies open, in a circular fashion via service clamps that hung nose-down. Ace and the rest of Star Serpent leapt into a fighter and opened up the communications channel. Ace activated the four powerful engines of his fighter, and even though they were not at full power yet, created a heat wave in the hangar. The rest of the team followed suit.

"ROB! Ready for launch! Open the interplanetary airlock!" Adder ordered, voice slightly altered by the oxygen apparatus. The bottom of the hangar below the fighters opened to reveal the icy tundras of Fichina and cold wind rushed into the hangar. "Team, raise engine power to full!" The hangar's internal temperature, though cooled by the air coming from Fichina, was heated to a point where the service clamps holding the fighters started melting. "Release the clamps!" The clamps opened up and the quintuple of fighters dropped into the atmosphere of the Lylat System's coldest planet.

Several G's started to slow down Ace's reaction time as he pulled up. With a loud roar, the five fighters headed through the clouds, where Star Fox, Bill's Husky squadron, and the bombers waited for them.

Ace flew in tight formation with the bombers and fighters. He smiled when he noticed that the bombers were his design- the SC-342AC atmospheric bomber. Even though he made them, Ace couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as he gazed at his creation being put to the test.

The crescent-shaped bombers had a distinct, devilish look. At the tips of the crescent, two tiny, but extremely powerful, plasma engines propelled the fighters through the air. Although they looked deadly enough, six ball turrets- one on each side, one on top, one mounted below, and one in the rear of the crescent- defended the flying fortress. Ace noticed they had the standard payload- twenty fuel-air bombs, five static bombs, and a two-ton antimatter warhead.

The Cornerian fighters supporting them had a unique T-shape and were white and green, with colored outlines that depicted the rank of the pilot. They had twin laser cannons and two bombs, as well as above-average speed and shields, which counterweighed the fact that it had no lock-on system.

"Alright guys, keep in Vauxhall formation," Bill ordered his squadron, "Defend the bombers at all costs. Parker! You're out of line- get to the front. Well, well, well, it looks like Star Serpent finally got here. Took you guys long enough."

"Hmph," Cris huffed, "At least we're here. Damn, it looks like the blizzard's intensifying." Cris was right- snow started flying around at high speeds, confining their radar to about a quarter of a mile and restricting visual contact to less than a yard.

"Dang!" Falco cursed. "We can't even locate targets in all this snow!"

"Way ahead of you guys," Ace spoke. "I prepared some ElectroMagetismFinder data for your fighters. EMF should help us see through this blizzard. Sending data to fighter cockpit displays now." Everyone's HUD suddenly became overflowed with azure. The fighters, as well as anything that gave off an electromagnetic field were suddenly visible.

"Sweet!" Bill commented, "Nice job Ace!"

"Y'know," Marcus sighed, "I really can't tell the difference."

"That's 'cause you have psychic sight," his younger brother pointed out, "Besides, you can see everyone anyways."

"Fighters, this is A-flight exploration leader," the leading bomber said. "Our first target is closing in. We should reach it in several minutes. Wind status check, over."

"Wind is blowing from the south-southwest at about one hundred knots, A-flight." Aloysius replied. "You should equip your bombs with thrusters to maintain accuracy. Over."

"This is A-flight. Understood. Bombs are equipped. Target closing in. We'll now reach it in 0037 hours. Over." A few minutes passed uneventfully. Ace stifled a yawn, but then:

"This is E-flight! Contact! I repeat, contact!" the fifth bomber said. "Enemy fighters coming in at one o'clock low! They appear to be of a different design, and they're bearing on us fast!"

Ace looked low and slightly to the right. There was a squadron of fighters bearing down towards them. E-flight was right- the fighters were definitely more advanced than the ones Star Fox and Star Serpent had encountered on Titania. They had an almost ghoulish shape- the center of a fighter was slightly curved downwards and two wings jutted out at a downward angle. Each of the fighters had two thrusters on each wing and the hull had three strange protrusions. One of the fighters' protrusions lit up. Ace's eyes widened.

A thin beam of pure energy rushed from the fighter and sliced all the way through A-flight, bisecting it. Ace could hear screams of agony and panic as the bomber's halves fell to the surface.

"They got A-flight!" Fox shouted. "Take evasive action, but retain Vauxhall formation!" Everyone swerved a bit to avoid further casualties. Ace jinked to the left, and a glob of plasma barely missed his chassis. The enemy fighters reached the squadron and started shooting down bombers and fighters with heavy-repeating plasma shots, which screeched through the air before finding their target.

"Everyone, defend the bombers!" Adder ordered. "Let's show these humans a thing or two about air superiority!"

Ace was the first to react. He pulled back a switch and converted the Bloody Maw into the interceptor mode. Ace was pushed back into his seat as he felt a surge of speed, and started chasing after a fighter. He fired a two-second burst of his miniguns, which ripped through the fighter and crippled its engines, making the fighter collide with another. However, getting close enough to another fighter to shoot it down gave another fighter a window of opportunity. He started tailgating Ace, while at the same time keeping himself out of range of his flak cannon.

"Ace! You got a fighter on your six! Need help?" Brutus asked.

"Nah," Ace declined. "I got it." He performed an airbrake maneuver, in which he pulled up, cut the engines, and then plunged down. The fighter followed him and started firing its plasma weapons. A few shots connected with Ace as he slowed down. This maneuver caused the enemy fighter to shoot over him and into his line of fire. Knowing this, the human fighter rolled to the right. Ace just smiled. He lifted up over the fighter and performed the helix maneuver. Although difficult to perform, the enemy fighter is open if it keeps a straight path, which it was doing. Ace was going to go over the fighter and then under it, brake, come from underneath, and pull up with guns blazing. The maneuver received its name due to the helix-shaped path of the maneuver.

Ace pulled down right over the fighter which, just as Ace planned, caused the pilot to veer into a position that was easier to hit him in. Ace pulled up underneath him and fired a salvo of minigun fire, shredding apart the fighter. He pulled up right before hitting the ground. He boosted right back into the fray and converted into default mode.

Ace was surprised that Grey and his squadron was doing quite well. Grey had downed several fighters and lost only a single pilot in his squadron. Bill pulled up and pierced right through a fighter, dissecting it. Then he fired a few blasts of his twin lasers and cut a trio of fighters to pieces.

The bombers, though down by one, were more than a match for the enemy fighters. The five ball turrets protected the flying fortresses with heavy tracer rounds.

Star Fox was doing well also- especially Tallon and Marcus. Just as Ace was about to shoot a fighter down, Marcus beat him to it with his powerful Zapper cannon.

"Dang it, Marcus! That was mine!" Ace whined.

"You snooze, you loose," Marcus replied. He started firing his Zapper, each shot downing another fighter.

Tallon, although without a laser system, cut through the enemy fighters like a maddened surgeon with a deadly scalpel. That scalpel was his missiles, which downed consecutive fighters. A fighter was stupid enough to try to take him out from below, so Tallon dropped a fuel-air bomb into its face, taking down several fighters with it.

Krystal was amazing as well. While a fighter was tailing her, she used pyrokinesis to set fire to the engines, making the ship explode into a fireball of twisted metal. In the next moment, she used cryokinesis on another fighter, freezing it, then used plain telekinesis to make it collide with another fighter. Ace doubted she even _needed_ to squeeze the trigger.

The ace pilot Falco made a series of fighters go down in flames because of his multi lock-on tech. A fighter started tailing him, but he faked a turn to get on his six and turn him into molten wreckage.

Fox was very conservative in terms of dogfights. Either he was covering Marcus, due to his vulnerability at close-ranges, helping Krystal out, or taking out a few fighters at a time. His main concern was the safety of the bombers, in which he constantly kept flying by them to make sure they weren't damaged too heavily.

Ace paused to take notice to the fighter behind him. He just pressed a lone trigger. The rear-mounted flak cannon sent sharp pieces of shrapnel in the fighter's direction. Several pieces ripped into the hull and made the fighter burst apart in a display of blue explosions. _Blue explosions? These things have plasma engines! _he thought. In the meantime, he observed his fellow team members.

Adder pretty much ripped through fighters in a mix of configurations. An example was when he turned to assault mode to take down a group of fighters in a single railgun blast, turning to stealth mode to slice apart another fighter, relocating himself, and repeating the process.

Aloysius, preferring the old-school ways, stayed in default mode. Regardless, he still tore through enemy ranks. This of course, wasn't surprising. Being a veteran pilot, he pulled off a risky eagle claw maneuver. Basically, he turned to face the enemy, and boosted right through it. Though practically a game of chicken, it was almost a win-win situation for Aloysius.

Cris, Ace had to admit, was almost as good in flying as he was. She pulled off a display of helix maneuvers, jinks, half-rolls, loops, and U-turning; she, in the process, shredded through several fighters in a short time.

Brutus, being a better tank driver that pilot, had a slightly more difficult problem with flight, although he did good anyways. Unfortunately, he had a trio of fighters on his tail.

"Brutus, three on your six!" Ace informed him.

"I know that!" Brutus replied. "Don't you see my frantic actions?!" Brutus tried in vain to get the fighters off. Ace just sighed, armed the missile pods, and released the safety. Three missiles streaked towards the fighters and struck true and hard, knocking them out of the air in smoking spirals. That was the end of the enemy fighter squadron.

"This is B-flight, new exploration leader," the substitute bomber leader spoke. "Target is below us. Robert! Open bomb bay doors. All bombers follow suit."

"Doors opening, commander. All bombs are armed and ready with thrusters," another person replied. Ace flew close to a bomber to see the action himself. Even though EMF made everything seem over textured and fuzzy, he could still see fine. Operators were scurrying to get to their positions, either at the bombsight or at a turret. Sure enough, Ace could hear the satisfactory whistle of bombs dropping through the air at dozens at a time. Even Tallon dropped a few bombs. He looked down and saw the research facility. One moment it was there, and then the bombs hit it, sending a mushroom cloud high into the atmosphere. Ace surveyed the damage. His eyes widened. The facility was still there.

"What the heck?" Brutus said, and then cursed several times. Indistinct curses ran through the radio.

"Aw, crap!" Fox looked down and cursed. "What's going on?"

"Damn, they have shields," Ace scowled, "Ah, well. B-flight, your bombers have static bombs right? Now would be the time to use 'em!"

A massive shield was blocking the facility, which was obvious, and the fuel-air bombs totaled it, but left the facility unharmed.

"Dropping static bombs!" Six of the high-energy bombs impacted on the surface of Fichina and burrowed deep underground. Then they activated. A giant flurry of static electricity ran through the entire facility, sending everything into oblivion. The whole foundation of the base was uplifted, and after the dust had cleared, a massive crater was where the base once stood.

"Aw, yeah!" Bill cheered through the radio. "That base is long-gone! Hoo-rah! And now the blizzard's over, too." Bill was right. The snow had died down and everyone switched back to normal vision modes.

Many other cheers were heard over the radio, but then static engulfed the signal. Ace's eyes widened again. _EMP,_ he thought. But only that amount of electromagnetic pulse discharge would only come from- _A slipstream jump!_ Only one human fighter could do that. It was the one on the blueprints Adder had uncovered.

"All fighters! Contact! Contact!" Ace yelled. "Incoming Seraph- class fighters!" Sure enough, several places in the atmosphere appeared to bulge outwards, distorting the landscape behind it. The bulging stopped and a fighter materialized out of nowhere, along with eleven others.

Ace had seen this fighter in the blueprints Adder had obtained. The fighters were shaped like a Manta Ray- even with the tail. The wings and body were pearlescent green with purple energy strips running down their length. Where the eye-stalks for the "manta" would be were two power rods. A fighter zoomed by him with the rods forming magnetic energy.

"EVASIVE MANUVERS!" Fox ordered. The fighters and bombers tried in vain to get out of the way. A long, orange beam exploded from the tip of a Seraph and collided with a bomber almost instantaneously. The fact that the beam could continuously fire ripped the bomber apart into cinders. _They've got directed energy weapons! _Ace thought, panic starting to grab hold of him.

"Defend the bombers and cover their retreat!" Adder boomed. "Break formation and attack at will!"

Ace turned back into default mode and tried to shoot down a fighter, but it just strafed the shots the boosted away, sending a shockwave into the air. The fighters were just too fast and maneuverable. Even he couldn't tail one for long. The bombers couldn't do a thing against the fighters. A quartet of Seraphim fired their directed energy beam cannons in short bursts, disintegrating the bomber and crew in a humongous explosion.

Ace already had trouble with the fighters. Just one was tailing him and it already started battering his fighter. But he had a trick up his sleeve.

Ace pulled off an S-curve, which was a U-turn, except upside down and filled with barrel rolls. This technique caused the pilot to go under and around the fighter, but it risked heavily disorienting the pilot using it. Ace eased off on the engines and performed the maneuver, kicked into assault mode, and fired a heavy missile at the fighter. _Gotcha_. he thought with a smile. The Seraph merely went back into slipstream and materialized behind him, firing another stream of directed energy. He managed to shake his tailgater off and turned back to the fleet.

Everything was a disaster. All bombers were shot down and many Cornerian fighters had been damaged or in critical condition.

"Guys!" Bill barked. "We can't hold these guys off! They're just too advanced!"

Adder smiled a little and replied, "Maybe for us. _Dreadnought_! Prepare for departure! Everyone into the ship!" All fighters zoomed toward the mothership and docked in the hangar. A Seraph tried to enter and cause damage, but was shot down by the automated turrets. That left eleven fighters left.

Everyone rushed to the command deck to survey the action. A lone hawk in a red uniform adorned with medals was waiting there. It was General Halcyon.

"General on deck!" Adder sounded. Everyone stood firm and saluted the general, who returned the salute.

"At ease," Halcyon said in his monotonous, almost mechanical tone. "This mission was a success, was it not?"

"Sir! Yes, sir!" Adder boomed. "Our objective was completed, sir, but-"

"You lost all the bombers," Halcyon finished. "I will take things from here. ROB, leave the ship to my control. Voice-activated command readings only."

ROB clicked a few buttons and then said, "Control of entire ship turned over to you, general."

"I will personally take down these annoying maggots," Halcyon seated himself in the command chair. Everyone seated themselves in the deck chairs and looked outside. The Seraphim had caused much damage to the shields. Before long, the hull would no longer be protected.

"Arm missile pods A1 through D9," Halcyon ordered. "I want firing solutions on those fighters."

"Acknowledged," the ship's AI replied in a robotic voice. "Missiles are armed with safeties released."

"Fire on my mark," Halcyon spoke. Several seconds passed like hours until, "Mark."

Several white streaks of missiles curved towards the Seraphs, blowing up seven of them, while the remaining four jumped into slipstream and back out to avoid the missiles. Halcyon continued, "Release fireburst pod one lock and fire." A flurry of explosives headed toward the Seraphs, taking down one right off the bat. Then other three made a Slipspace jump. When they materialized, more and more explosives rammed into their hulls, killing off the remaining fighters. Halcyon didn't even twitch through the firefight.

"Congrats on your mission success, Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Husky Squadron., Halcyon said as he got out of the seat. "Now, if you excuse me, I have some business to attend to. Rest well teams. Husky Squadron, you are wanted back on Katina." And with that, he left.

"Well, that was one heck of a mission eh?" Bill finally spoke. "Nice seeing ya guys again. Until next time. Huskies! Let's return to base." The pilots followed Bill out of the command deck. Minutes later, several fighters, with the addition of Halcyon's, roared out of the _Dreadnought's_ hangar and into the black of space.

"Alright guys," Adder said, "I guess we've earned some R&R for now. Go and relax. We'll need it for the next mission." Everyone, minus ROB, left the command deck to do what they pleased. Ace hurried back to his part of the hangar. _Now for that hover-tank I planned to build…_he thought with a smile.

* * *

The human empire had long been converted into a caste system, in which the lord that controlled the military was at the top. Dr. Richard Oxan never liked reporting to his superiors. To him it seemed almost as bad as getting captured by those Lylatians. But, a task is a task. He approached an entryway into the lord's office, which was guarded by a duo of two-and-a-half-story tall honor guard class-mechs. He couldn't help but shiver as he gazed at their eight arms that held axes, swords, and other melee weapons. One stepped forward on its tri-legs and bent over to look at him with its four-mandibled face and retinal scan his eyes. It bent back and nodded to the other one. They stepped aside and let the scientist enter the office.

In the middle of the poorly lit room, the commander of the human army sat in a leather swivel chair behind a desk with his back to Oxan. As the doors shut, he swiveled around. Lord Tycho Iradanus was the mastermind behind the Lylat System's invasions, and soon, its conquest. He had jet-black hair that highlighted his light skin. He was in an olive-green uniform covered with medals. Oxan kneeled at the foot of his desk.

"Rise," Iradanus spoke. "What is your business here?"

"I-I was sent t-to inform you of an incident," Oxan stuttered. Iradanus cocked an eyebrow, "The research facilities on Fortuna and Fichina have been destroyed, my Lord."

Several moments passed before Iradanus replied, "It is of no consequence, but how was the Fichina research facility found? And what about the siphoning facilities?"

Oxan gulped, "Two Lylatian scouts found the base and reported back. One of my Spades were able to take them down before they got away, though. None of the siphoning facilities have been discovered yet."

"Then I trust you have the back-up data for the continuation of our projects, Oxan?" Iradanus asked.

"Yes, my Lord. Also, the Spades seemed to taking a liking to the body plan," Oxan continued.

"Good. We need them now," Iradanus smiled, "Begin the initial phase of Project: Spade then. I want the first batch of troops on Corneria by tomorrow."

Oxan was relieved at the statement that his project was finally going to be put into action. He replied, "Yes, my Lord! Right away!" Oxan hurried out of the office. Iradanus swiveled around to his view of the blackness of space.

"Once the Spades are unleashed, there will be nothing to stop us," Iradanus said to himself. Once the siphoning of the planets was complete, it would be the end of the Lylatians' plight.

* * *

Pretty much an attempt at another aerial dogfight. Can't say I did too well, but it works, right? Anyways, we get to see more of Ace's mechanical genius at work and take more of an in-depth look at the Bloody Maw starfighter used by Star Serpent.

And we also take a look at what the humans have in store for the Lylatians...

Hope you've been enjoying the story so far. Remember to read and review!


	7. Chapter 7: Xamuros

Chapter 7: Xamuros

December 12, 2361

1432 hours

Research Facility Gamma

A black, endless void. That's what life before sentience feels like. Suddenly, bright light filled _his_ view. _He_ opened his photoreceptors and saw what looked like a work table and _he_ was on it. The only problem was, _he_ didn't know who _he_ was and everything was unclear.

A scientist entered the room. _He_ saw a name tag- the scientist was Dr. Richard Oxan. _He_ hoped he would clear some things up for _him_.

"So you're finally active," Oxan smiled. "Rise, soldier. You have much work to do." So _he_ was a soldier now. _He _got off of the table and stood on his feet. _Strange, he_ thought, _I never used to have such a strong grip on the ground._

"So you're finally ready…," Oxan's voice trailed off.

"I need to know," _he_ spoke, surprised by his unnaturally rough, electronic voice, "Who am I? Where are we? And what's going on?"

"You've just entered the realm of sentience, so I can't blame you for not knowing." Oxan shrugged slightly. "Your name is Xamuros, the first operational Spade soldier- number zero-zero-zero. You are in Research Facility Gamma, where your brethren await sentience like you. A war between us and the Lylatians has broken out, and you are another soldier to enter the battlefield."

"A…war?" Xamuros queried.

"That is the purpose of your creation, number zero-zero-zero," Oxan explained. "Like I said before, you are a Spade soldier- one of the soon-to-be thousands of robotic soldiers of my creation. Enough talk. Wait here for the rest of your brothers to arise." With that, Oxan left.

Xamuros's head hurt like crazy. Many things were left unclear, but at least he knew his purpose now. He headed for a mirror to get a better look at himself. What he saw in his reflection shocked him.

His thin body was matte black all over, with iridescent energy strips running along the length of his arms, legs, and body. That wasn't all- his two legs were extremely thin with a long spike where his feet should be. He had four thin arms which all ended, like his legs, in a spike, although the bottom two were noticeably sharper. His top left arm had a strange, crossbow-shaped object attached to it, while the top right had clusters of crystalline needles jutting out of it towards him. He counted exactly three-hundred needles, which he never recalled being able to calculate so fast before. From the shoulders of his top arms were two triangular spires that jutted out far beyond his head. His head was a vertically elongated diamond that jutted outwards in a pyramid-like shape. It had four, small energy strips intercepting in an X-shape, which functioned as photoreceptors in the middle of the extended pyramid.

Xamuros again gazed at the objects on his top arms. Deep inside his mind, he found a function for them- weapons. It was time to test them. A conveniently placed target was there for him to practice.

He spun around and pulled on the mental trigger for the spiked weapon. Dozens of sharp needles shot out of an unseen tip on his arm and hit the target with the sound not unlike a jackhammer. It wasn't accurate over long ranges, but it was deadly up close. He flicked his arm down and more needles took the place of the ones he shot.

Next, Xamuros chose his crossbow-shaped weapon. Three small pieces of flak ammunition rushed forth in a trio of thunderclaps and hit the target dead-center. This weapon seemed to fire in a semi-automatic burst, making it extremely accurate. Xamuros observed the target. The flak had hit it, and was leaking some kind of liquid. He took a sample and stared at it. His vision magnified and he found the liquid to be a hallucinogen. The Spade noticed that after a few seconds, the ammo recharged for the weapon.

Xamuros found another function deep in the recesses of his mind- another weapon. This time, he collapsed his head, arms, and legs into his body and fell to the ground. He now appeared as a compact hovercraft in the shape of a long elongated diamond with two thrusters, formed by his shoulder spires, located at the rear. The tip of the diamond looked scalpel-sharp. He practiced moving around with it. The hovercraft could move fast, but had low traction. Then again, it _was_ a hovercraft. He transformed back into his bipedal form.

"Practicing before the battle, eh?" Xamuros spun around, weapons ready, but found Oxan again. "Those things are your weapons, but I trust you're already familiar with them," he continued. "Come. We must input your combat data into your CPU." Xamuros followed.

They entered what appeared to be a surgery room, except with different tools. Two other Spades- each identical to him- waited there as well. They stared at him silently, then got up in unison and saluted him with both right arms. He saluted back in the same manner.

"What happens now, sir?" Xamuros asked Oxan.

"In numerical order," the scientist explained, "you will be receiving combat encoding sequences- an easier substitute for combat training protocols. Number 000, you're up first. Stand there." Xamuros did as he was told.

Two technicians came up to him, got out a microchip and placed it into the base of his neck. A sharp pain racked his body as the chip was inserted. Suddenly, every tactic known to man became clear. His weapons were no longer a mystery- the needled arm was the Jackhammer (a fitting name for the sound it produces), the crossbow-esque weapon was the Daggerblade, and the hovercraft was named the Longsword- an alternative form to move quickly on the battlefield. Also, the advanced, rechargeable energy shield around each Spade became apparent as well. The technicians did the same to the other Spades.

"Go and get some rest," Oxan directed. "Socialize with each other. You will all be squad members by tomorrow." Xamuros and the Spades walked to a wide room where there was an obstacle course and a firing range.

"Well, since we're going to be squadmates by tomorrow," spoke Spade-002, "I believe it's best we get to know each other."

Spades 000, 001, and 002 conversed with each other. The other Spades were nicknamed Gohma and Prockth. Gohma was taller than the other two and seemed a bit more bulky, speaking of higher strength. He had a gruff, serious attitude at all times. Prockth was a bit more intelligent and was a quick learner. Unlike Gohma, he was more open to others. Xamuros was apparently the fastest of the trio and had the best leadership skills.

There wasn't much to talk about, except for the war. From the chips, they learned of the motives of the human empire. It seemed that both sides were equally matched at the moment. The humans had sheer numbers and some technology that was better, but the Lylatians knew the terrain and had better tactics. The balance of power could shift to one of them at any moment.

"Well squad," Xamuros spoke, "it's been nice getting to know you two, but we need to prepare for the upcoming battle. First, let's work out our tactics." The two Spades began practicing in the obstacle course and worked together long into the day and night.

* * *

"Ten-shun!"

Xamuros and his team, as well as several hundred soldiers snapped to attention and saluted the sergeant.

"At ease," the commanding officer ordered as the troops relaxed. "Today, soldiers, we're taking a Cornerian city by the name of Terran." Many murmurs spread throughout the company of troops, but the Spades remained still and mute. "Did I say that any of you could speak?" All went quiet and the sergeant continued, "We're going to be air-dropped in different positions around the city with armor and mech support. Spades, you're going in under heavy fire, so let's see pull your own weight! Many of you will not return to this room next time. For many of you, the last place you'll be is the battlefield. You are my men and I respect each and every one of you. Make haste, get ready, and Godspeed. Dismissed." All the soldiers headed for their dropships.

Xamuros, Gohma, and Prockth headed into the one closest to them and strapped in. Even though they were mechanoids, they were still affected by zero-gravity. The engines roared to life and the dropship lifted out of the hangar of the capital ship and into Meteo- Corneria's natural asteroid field that provided a barrier that prevented most ships from entering.

Dropships cautiously weaved between the asteroids and headed for the surface. Friction from the atmosphere formed an orange glow on the prow of the bulky dropship, but that was the least of their problems.

Lasers and missiles began shooting down the dropships one by one. It was very hard to dodge a laser, due to their high muzzle velocity (they are amplified light, you know), so charred holes were formed around the hull every foot or so.

"Alright Spades!" the pilot screamed as he was about to land on the plains that separated them from Terran. "Dropping in three…two…one… GO, GO, GO!"

The Spades jumped out of the rear and onto the grass, still sparkling with dew in the early morning. Next to them, several other troops, mechs, and armor were dropped into the surrounding area. Xamuros signaled for them to hurry for the city. Several other squads of humans ran with them. Suddenly, artillery sounded in the distance.

"We've got arty fire!" Xamuros shouted. "Keep it loose!" All the troops spread out, but two were hit by an artillery shell, disintegrating one entirely into a bloody mess and sending the other one flying into the air before hitting the ground dead by the crater. The rapid-firing artillery quickly ripped through the offensive line, sending soldiers flying and punching holes in mechs and armor alike. "Screw this!" Xamuros cursed and signaled again. The three Spades converted into the Longsword and zoomed for the defensive line.

A wall separated them from the city, where several ships were evacuating the civilians. Laser machine gun nests dotted the wall and opened fire on the troops. Land near the Spades charred black where the lasers hit and sizzled at their shields. Xamuros sent a wireless signal for them to split up and regroup in side the walls. The others complied and roared away.

Xamuros turned back to bipedal form, and he got behind a spider tank for mobile cover. Spider tanks were very much like a normal tank, aside from the fact that instead of treads, the tanks had eight mechanical legs that all ended in a blunt point, meaning the tank had more mobility. The standard cannon on the tank had been removed and was replaced with a directed energy cannon. Although the beam could overheat after a few seconds, firing in short bursts could rip apart even the sturdiest of tanks. Other soldiers had already gotten behind the tank as well with heads low. The tank was firing its DE cannon, disintegrating chunks of the defensive wall. Xamuros's scent receptors smelled ozone as the cannon fired another burst.

The tank was then hit by two artillery shells fired in quick succession and was turned into fireball. The ensuing explosion knocked Xamuros off his feet and killed the other soldiers. So much for using the tank as cover. He quickly dashed for the wall, dodging several artillery blasts and laser bolts, due to his superior reflexes.

Xamuros leapt into the air and into an LMG nest that was located along the wall. He landed on a lizard soldier and sliced his head off with his lower arms, then swung the Jackhammer at the others and ripped them apart in bloody, torn masses. He exited the nest and entered the city, where a tank was waiting for him.

A tank shot made him fly into the air and landed on his back, though most of the force was absorbed by the shields. The tank tried to run over him, but he leaped into the air and landed onto the turret. He fired several shots of his Jackhammer, which ripped into the inside, killing its operators.

Xamuros continued into the city and met a platoon of Lylatian troops. They aimed at him, but were smacked down as a mech made a fifty-meter jump and landed on some of them, shattering the ground. The mech was the deadly melee-class. Where it lacked any projectile weapons, it compromised for that with its extremely hard hull made of reinforced steel. Even tanks were sent flying by this menace. The mech turned towards him, nodded its head-turret, and rammed through the rest of the surviving troops and crushed a pillbox under its feet.

He continued along the mech's path of destruction, shooting any Lylatian that was in his way. Xamuros met with Gohma and Prockth near an office building. The trio found an anti-aircraft emplacement surrounded by troops. He made a single hand signal.

The squad came in with Daggerblades blazing, cutting down the assortment of troops around the flak emplacement. A nearby jeep heard all the commotion and rushed in firing its chaingun like crazy. The bullets hit Xamuros- pinging off of the unseen shield, though the blast still knocked him down. Prockth manned the flak cannon and, with some difficulty due to his lack of fingers, blew the jeep apart.

"This city is too large for all of us to take down at once," Xamuros faced his squadmates, "Split up again. Gohma, you have underground bunkers. Prockth, uptown. I'll take downtown. See if you can meet up with another division of troops for support." His squadmates acknowledged and sprinted for their objectives. Xamuros converted himself back into the Longsword and sped off. When he reached downtown, everything was eerily quiet. There wasn't even any wind. He changed back to his bipedal form and walked as silently as he could.

It wasn't long before he reached the command building of the army in the sector. He put his arms to his head and activated a comm hacker inside his head. He heard the following:

"…most of the civilians have been evacuated, General Halcyon."

"Good," the Halcyon person replied. "What is the status of the troops?"

"Our listeners report of strange robotic soldiers that can take a heck of a beating and can cause immense damage, sir. They're a major threat. We should…" There was a small pause.

"Quiet. We have an eavesdropper. Silence all further troop orders." _Crap,_ Xamuros cursed in his head. He immediately cut from the frequency and headed for the command building. He stopped in his tracks when he heard heavy sobbing. He wheeled to his left.

There was an assault-class mech that cornered a female bird and her son, the mother trying to protect the boy. Xamuros knew that they were his enemies, but to kill a defenseless family? Was…was it…right? Not even these Lylatian scum deserved that. He stepped in the mech's way and signaled for it to go away. After the mech acknowledged his order, and he turned to the family. The mother held on tight to the child in an effort to defend him.

"I mean no harm to either of you," Xamuros spoke. "Civilians are harmless, and they are no threat," He paused to convert to the Longsword, "If you wish to escape and live, get on and hold on tight," The family obeyed. While he sped for the city wall, he pondered, _Are the Lylatians really as bad as they say? That mother was protecting her child…like any parent would…_ After lifting the two over the wall with the two thanking him for his mercy, he returned to the task at hand. It was still his function to exterminate the soldiers.

Xamuros made his way to the command building and activated his thermal visor. He lifted his Daggerblade and, with several thunderclaps, knocked every enemy he could see dead . If they somehow weren't killed, hallucinogen caused them to suffer from violent convulsions before they either died of fright or fainted. He switched back to normal vision and headed for the command building. The door was obviously bolted shut. Xamuros just cut the hinges open using his arms and lightly tapped it, making the door fall in. He stepped inside and was immediately rewarded with a shot to the face from an ursine soldier.

The shields took most of the damage, but the indicator bar fell down low and an alarm began beeping. Xamuros leaped up and onto the rifleman, stabbing him in the neck with his razor-sharp leg tips. The bear made a grotesque gurgling noise, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell to the ground dead. Xamuros removed his legs from the body, waited for his energy shield to recharge, and continued. He scaled some stairs and stopped at a corner. He heard heavy breathing on the other side.

Xamuros whipped around the corner and fired with both the Jackhammer and the Daggerblade, killing all but one of the soldiers, who was hiding behind a crate. The soldier tossed a grenade his way. He merely impaled it with his foot before it activated, looked up, and was smacked across the face with the stock of the soldier's weapon.

Now he was really ticked. The Spade supersoldier made an electronic roar and battered the soldier into the wall. Before the soldier could scream, he got a whack in the head by the Jackhammer arm, the needles cutting into the soldier's head, killing him instantly. The body fell limp and slumped on the floor. Now covered with blood, Xamuros made his way to the heavy-duty door blocking his access to the control room. _Heavy-duty, my right._ Xamuros, with obvious inhuman strength, kicked the door open. The soldier on the other side of the door kicked him in the chest, knocking him down to the floor.

Xamuros was getting tired of being knocked to the ground so many times in one day and kicked himself up and into the soldier's chest cavity and tore the troop in half. _So much for arriving in style,_ he thought, now soaked in blood yet again. He looked around the room. It was empty. The general had escaped. Xamuros cursed and was heading for the door when his pain receptors overloaded, making his entire body arch in pain. He looked down. A large, jagged piece of metal was imbedded in his chest, barely missing his vital energy conduits. Xamuros ripped the spike out and wheeled around. To his surprise, a green toad was behind him, holding a strange, single-handed, armor-piercing weapon (Gee, I wonder where he got that, huh?).

"Take that you stupid bucket of bolts!" the toad screamed, "No one takes my home planet down without getting through me first!"

"Won't be a problem," Xamuros replied with all arms ready to lunge at and make frog legs out of the fool. The toad quickly realized that the robot was more than a match for him and bolted for the door. Xamuros slashed for the toad's head, but the soldier ducked and rolled between his legs and ran for the exit. That stupid toad was getting on his circuits.

Xamuros went back outside, but like the general, the toad was nowhere to be seen. He roared in anger that two of his prey have eluded him.

"Gohma to Xamuros, come in," the radio inside his head blared.

"I read you, comrade," he replied.

"Our forces have secured the city. That's the good news."

"Then I suppose there's bad news." Xamuros sighed.

"Yes. There was a scientist and a general that appeared to be leading the defense- a toad and a hawk by the name of, uh…Slipper Toad and William Halcyon. They got away." _Not those two again._ Xamuros thought, wishing he had a mouth to frown with.

As if reading his mind, Gohma said, "Regardless, we won a major victory. Soon the planet will be ours. Meet you later with Prockth at debriefing. Over and out."

Xamuros stared into the sunset of the sky, and watched as two Seraph fighters zoomed over his head and off into the distance. Watching he remembered the family he had just helped escape. Then he thought about Oxan, his creator, and about the humans who waged war against the Lylatians. Were the humans so different from them? Was this war pointless? Was it right to kill off these Lylatians for universal dominance? Xamuros didn't know any of those answers, but headed off for the CP for debriefing and some well-deserved R&R.

* * *

Well, this is pretty much the first extremely violent chapter in Contact. Hope you bloodthirsty people enjoyed it. :P

At any rate, I went for something new here- introducing a totally new character on the human side. Not only do you get to see just how technologically advanced these invaders really are, but you also get an indication of how there are those who doubt the humans' justification in this war. You'll see quite a bit more of Xamuros from here on in, especially after a bit of a plot twist.

Hope you've been enjoying the story so far. Remember to give me some feedback when you can!


	8. Chapter 8: An Old Friend Returns

Chapter 8: An Old Friend Returns

December 13, 2361

0700 hours

Inside the _Dreadnought_

Fox knew that it was time to get out of bed, but he really wanted to relax after getting really bad wrist pain from the dogfight a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, Krystal had other plans. He already felt her consciousness reach out for his.

[_Wake up, Fox_,] her voice reverberated inside his head.

[_Can't it wait, babe? I'm kinda tired_,] Fox replied in his mind. Suddenly, a loud ring filled his mind and he jumped right out of bed and landed on the floor.

"Okay, okay! I'm awake!" Fox shouted, "What was that for?"

"Good morning to you too, Fox," Krystal replied with a smile, "It beats watching you beat the circuits out of an alarm clock."

"Good point," he replied, the ringing subsiding. "Argh, was that necessary?"

"You didn't get out of bed, so I merely made you," Krystal replied in an innocent tone. Fox couldn't help but forgive her. She was his wife, after all.

"Ah, almost forgot!" Fox exclaimed. He went to a drawer and pulled out a long box. He said, "I know this is a bad time, but Happy Anniversary!"

"Oh, Fox! You remembered!" Krystal cried, arms wrapped around Fox.

"Go ahead," Fox motioned towards the box. Krystal delicately opened it. She gasped as she revealed a thin staff. It was of a golden color with blue symbols along the rod. One side ended with a sharp, orange gem, while the other ended in an ovular extension with a small gem inside it. Many years ago, it was the same staff that Fox used to save Sauria and her life. Tears began flowing down her cheeks as she took out a box under the bed

"There's yours," Krystal spoke with a smile, handing the package to her husband.

"Thanks, Krystal, I- whoa!" Fox exclaimed. Inside the box was a state-of-the-art blaster with new plasma ammunition. He lifted it up, surprised by its light weight, and found another blaster below it.

"Just in time for the war, babe," Fox spoke with much gratitude. "Thanks." Both of them embraced each other and kissed. The couple then set their gifts down for later use, then went into the nearby bathroom to wash up.

Fox stepped into the high-tech steam shower with his clothes on and closed his eyes. He pressed a button and a jet of steam erupted around him, cleaning him and his clothes instantly. Fox then let Krystal take her quick shower and grabbed a nearby tube of dental foam. He squeezed a bit into his mouth, swashed it around, then spit out the foul-tasting fluid. No matter what dentists did to the formula, it always tasted like liquefied cardboard. Krystal accidentally swallowed on some of the foam and gagged in disgust.

"Why is it that you must make sacrifices to have good health?" Krystal asked to no one in particular.

The two vulpines got dressed after that. Fox changed into his gray vest with green cargo pants, while Krystal got into her blue jumpsuit and slipped on her jewelry- a pendant on her head, a necklace, and a couple tail rings. They walked to the mess hall of the _Dreadnought_, Fox laying a hand on his wife's waist.

In his short time onboard the gigantic mothership, Fox came to value it as much as the original Great Fox. After learning that Adder had received it from James after his passing, he couldn't help but feel at home on it. The high-tech equipment on it, courtesy of Ace, sometimes made Fox feel disoriented, but he learned to get used to it.

The two quickly came across Marcus, who was wearing a white cloak. He was apparently lost.

"Hey son, you lost?" Fox asked. He had never gotten used to Marcus's starry-eyed stare- along with the cloudy corneas and blue veins that represented his sight, he was almost intimidating. But, he never showed it. Marcus was his son, after all.

Marcus turned to his father and replied, "Morning, and yeah, kind of. The thing is, psychic sight does help me a lot on the battlefield, but in the _Dreadnought_, everything's inorganic. I can't tell one hallway from the next. I've been awake for three hours trying to find the mess hall."

"Follow us," Krystal said. "We know the way…I think." Unfortunately, they met the same fate as Marcus as they quickly lost their way in the gargantuan ship. Instead, they found a purple beam of energy flowing upwards.

"What's this?" Fox asked. Aloysius, as if on cue, materialized in the center of the beam and dropped onto the level the lost trio was on.

"Hello, Fox, Krystal, and Marcus," the armored bat wheezed, "Lost?"

"Yeah. We kinda lost our way to the mess hall," Marcus replied.

"Step into the beam with me," Aloysius tilted his head towards the pillar of energy. "It's a sort of beam that converts your particles into energy. I don't know how Ace did it, but just think of the place where you need to get to other than the hangar, you rooms, and command deck, and you'll be there." He stepped back into the beam, folded his arms into his chest, and his body was engulfed with light. Then his body seemed to fall apart like a jigsaw puzzle and the particles floated upwards and out of sight. Krystal and Marcus followed the same procedure.

Fox stepped into the beam and thought about the mess hall and breakfast. He suddenly felt lightheaded, and then blacked out. The world rushed back into his eyes in a flurry of colors. Fox realized he was in the mess hall in front of another beam of energy. Everyone else was waiting for them.

"Well it's about time you got here!" Falco spoke tiredly. "And I'm usually the one who rises the latest."

"Good morning to you too, Falco," Marcus replied, not wavered by his sarcasm.

"We're in space. Can't you see that?" Marcus stared at him blankly. "Oh, yeah. I forgot." Falco continued. Fox and Krystal came across the serving counter, where Brutus was distributing food.

"There you go, Tallon," Brutus said, "Enjoy!"

"Thanks, Brutus," Tallon yawned, still tired.

"Ah, well if it isn't the lovebirds," Brutus smiled. "Well, we've got cereal, oatmeal, pancakes- anything you want."

Fox asked what Krystal and Marcus wanted and replied, "Just a couple of muffins would be nice. Oh, and two cappuccinos and a cup of green tea too."

"Comin' right up," Brutus complied. He stepped into the kitchen to fetch the orders of food and beverages. He returned with the items balanced in both hands. After taking their items, Marcus went to sit with his brother, Tallon. Krystal left for a table and Fox was about to follow her when-

"Brutus, stand to!" Fox, surprised by the sudden order right behind him, dropped his plate. Adder lased out his arm and caught the plate and muffin just centimeters from the floor. He handed the platter back to Fox.

"I believe you dropped this," Adder said, handing the plate back to the vulpine. Fox was surprised to see Adder in an undershirt and a pair of jeans. He had never seen Adder dressed informally before. The serpent turned back to Brutus, "I'll have the usual, a thimble-full of tea.

"Thanks," Fox responded, accepting the plate. Brutus returned with an extremely tiny up of tea.

"Here you are, sir," Brutus saluted. Even in the early morning, Brutus still did so to his superior.

"At ease," Adder accepted the cup. "Thank you." He left the mess hall.

"Just a thimble of tea?" Fox asked.

"We snakes have slow metabolisms," the boa constrictor explained, "so we digest slower, making us able to operate in the battlefield for about three days on one decent meal. That's why Ace isn't here and why we all eat so little."

"Okay. Thanks for clearing that up." Fox went to sit with Krystal and began to eat his muffin. Fox was surprised that the muffin was fresh out of the oven. He looked back at Brutus, who was closing up the counter and shutting of the cooking oven.

Fox finished his muffin and emptied his coffee mug in about a minute. He turned to Krystal and spoke, "I'm gonna go for a walk around the ship, alright babe?"

"You can go ahead and check on Adder then, honey," Krystal replied

"I didn't say I wanted to," Fox quickly spoke.

"You _thought_ you wanted to," she raised an eyebrow, "I'm a telepath, remember?"

"There's nothing I can hide from you, eh?" Fox said, then kissed Krystal on the cheek. He walked into the energy beam, thought about the sleeping quarters, and felt lightheaded once more before blacking out and opening his eyes to the deck that housed all the bedrooms. Fox walked for two minutes before finding the door where Adder should be. He cracked open the door a bit, not wanting to intrude into Adder's privacy, and peeked inside.

Adder's room was dark, but light enough so that Fox's eyes could instantly adjust to the change in light. The room had no bed, nor a floor mat, meaning Adder slept on the floor. An altar- which was a simple hearth decorated with runes that Fox couldn't translate and candles which cast many a will-o-the-wisp against the wall. Other than those, the room was devoid of personalization. Then Adder stepped into view, stripped down to his waist, and kneeled in front of the altar, apparently not noticing his spy. Fox was guessing he was about to pay his respects to his family.

Adder first began by lighting some incense, as well as the fire and put his hands together for prayer. He muttered words in a language Fox couldn't understand one bit. The dialect was seemed delicate, yet harsh at the same time. It was beautiful, but at the same time, sent shivers down his spine. Fox shuddered from the cold feeling that grasped him. Adder then removed a candle from its resting place and laid it near the roaring fire in front of him. He then unsheathed a small dagger covered in symbols that Fox still couldn't understand. Fox's eyes widened as Adder cut a gash into his chest in a symbolic pattern, traced the pattern while gathering the blood onto his fingertip, and drew the same symbol onto the candle. He then let the wound bleed into a small bowl. Once the wound stopped bleeding, which to Fox's surprise only a few seconds, Adder cleaned and sheathed the blade back into a scabbard, and placed it in on the floor nearby. He put the candle back to its normal position. Adder placed the bowl of blood in the fire, not even wincing as the flames licked at his mechanical arm, and let the blood be consumed by the flames. Adder stood up and bowed a final time. Then with a wave of his arms, the candles and fire went out. Fox stepped away from the door and walked back into his room, still shaken by what he just saw, and lied in the bed.

After witnessing the bloody ritual that Adder went through on a daily basis, Fox felt a deep sense of respect for him. Not only was he a strong leader, both of body and mind, but deeply honored his deceased family enough to render his flesh for its sake.

"I know you were spying on me," Fox leapt to his feet. Adder was right next to him, and had donned a uniform.

"Sorry, I just, well-" Fox stammered, but Adder swept his hand in a motion to silence Fox.

"There is no need to apologize, Fox," Adder spoke, "There is no need to hide anything."

Fox sighed, "I'm really sorry about your family, Adder."

"All of that is in the past. We must not dwell on it for too long, for depression follows next. I know that you feel the same way. The ravages of war aren't the only thing that can gnaw at the mind."

"Yeah," Fox glumly replied, remembering his dad. "Adder?" The leader of Star Serpent stood still.

"Yes?" Adder queried.

"What was it like fighting alongside my dad?" Fox asked. Adder sat down alongside Fox on the bed.

"I don't like thinking about it too much, but as his son, you have the right to know," Adder began. "James McCloud welcomed me into the team with open arms. He didn't care that I was a snake- he's one of the handful of people in the universe who see the world with eyes unclouded by discrimination or ignorance. Discrimination comes from the weakness of peoples' hearts, and your father had a very strong one indeed.

"James was extremely valiant in battle. He was willing to put himself in danger in order to keep the Lylat System safe. You already know he was an excellent pilot, pulling off risky maneuvers and crippling enemy fighters. He was like the master of the sky, if not a little headstrong.

"We all were good friends." Adder continued, a smile stretching on his face, "Never once had we ever lost hope in one another. Until that fateful day.

"I never would have thought that Pigma would be so greedy enough as to betray his friends for his own gain," Adder's smile had vanished by then. "And I never thought that James would sacrifice his own life to save ours. Sure, I lost my legs, tail, and left arm in the process, but I was alive. I've had nightmares for so long…he was so kind to me…he was the only one outside of my race who accepted me at first. Not even Peppy like me for the first few weeks.

"After I got out of rehab, I learned that the team had disbanded. The three of us took a different path- Peppy watched over you, I went back into the Corps, and that last individual went off to mask his identity."

"Who was that individual?" Fox asked.

"You'll find out sooner than you think," Adder replied, "And you've actually met him several times. Now, after-"

"ALL PERSONNEL TO THE COMMAND DECK!" ROB blared into the intercom, "ALL PERSONNEL TO THE COMMAND DECK! GENERAL HALCYON HAS SENT FOR US!"

"Damn," the pit viper-cobra hybrid shoot his head, "if something hasn't changed about ROB, it's his way of getting in the way of so many damn things."

Adder and Fox immediately went into the teleporter and reappeared on the command deck. They sat themselves in the chairs as the rest of Star Fox and Star Serpent headed into the deck.

"Decoding message," ROB spoke in his mechanical tone. "Bringing up message on the monitor."

General Halcyon's face appeared in midair as the lights dimmed. He spoke, "Members of Star Fox and Star Serpent, the war has escalated to a whole new level." For the first, Fox sensed a little distress in the hawk's voice.

"The humans have unleashed all their tech and mounted a full-scale assault on all of our planets. They're already laying siege to even Corneria as we speak," Halcyon continued. "But this is just the better news. The humans have created some kind of robotic warrior." Even Adder leaned forward, intent on learning the full extent of the matter.

"Intel says that these 'Spade' soldiers were engineered to be nearly flawless soldiers. They are extremely deadly in all ranges, so confront them with caution." Halcyon pressed on, with a photo of a Spade tearing apart a helpless soldier at his side, "There have been so far twenty-seven confirmed Spades on the battlefield. Along with the already advanced technology of the humans, we fear that we may lose this war.

"Back to brass-tacks, you are wanted to take back the captured city of François, Katina. The humans have built some kind of installation there. Find out what they're doing there and shut it down. Simple and to the point. Halcyon out." Halcyon gave a final salute as the hologram flickered, then vanished. Everyone was silent for a few moments, then turned to their leaders.

"Alright, guys, everyone to the armory!" Fox ordered, "Suit up! ROB, get us to Katina. Make sure we don't get any unwanted attention, too!" The elite soldiers went into the teleporter, while once again, white light engulfed everyone's view before vanishing. Fox guessed the _Dreadnought _had just made a slipstream jump andwas now near the space above Katina.

The soldiers appeared in the armory. It was Fox's first glimpse of the magnificent place. Rifles, SMGs, machine guns, anti-armor weapons, and other types of weaponry were hanging on weapons shelves, waiting to get their taste of combat. Armor and accessories of all kinds- stealth devices, flak jackets, helmets, gloves, boots, optic probes, and many others laid on racks.

Star Serpent immediately began suiting up. Everyone minus Aloysius donned a flak jacket, face helmet, army boots, and combat gloves. No area on their body was left exposed. Ace, Brutus, and Adder even attached temperature regulation units inside the armor.

"Forecast's calling for rain," Ace explained. "We're cold-blooded, so these temp regulators are mandatory."

Next Star Serpent got their weapons. Adder chose his favorite shotgun and attached a laser charge to it, then loaded a grenade into the launcher. Brutus got out an assault rifle and attached a double clip to it, then cocked the action. Cris chose a new Overheat directed energy beam rifle, a long weapon with a spinning double-barrel, which was basically a directed energy sniper rifle- just obtained from R&D. Ace got out two energy scythes and attached them to his tail and left arm. He then put a weird scissor-like weapon on his right arm. He then opened it, revealing a small tri-barrel. He fired a long burst into a nearby target, hitting dead-center for all shots, then started calibrating the weapons for a higher rate of fire. Aloysius chose nothing.

"Hey, how come you aren't getting anything?" Tallon asked.

"I have a different role in this battle," Aloysius replied flatly. "I hate the rain."

"Star Fox, you might want to wear something else, Adder suggested.

"Huh? Why?" Fox queried.

"The battlefield is no place for fancy outfits. It requires functional armor," Adder replied, tossing a flak jacket his way.

"You heard him team, suit up," Fox ordered. The heroes donned the same kind of armor that Star Serpent had. Unaccustomed to the heavy weight of the armor, Fox staggered a little bit before regaining his balance.

Star Fox then obtained their firearms. Fox chose his two new plasma blasters as sidearms, then got out a laser battle rifle with a grenade launcher and switched the firing mode to semi-automatic burst. Krystal chose a light machine gun this time, preferring mobility over firepower. Falco grabbed a plasma rifle that was obtained from the humans and jammed a new plasma core into the middle of the weapon. Tallon got a Colt Mk. XI- a high-powered semi-automatic rifle with a grenade launcher attached. Finally, Marcus got out his signature DeadEye sniper rifle, which he, this time, put a thermal scope on it. Everyone then grabbed some grenades of all kinds- shrapnel, explosive, smoke, incendiary, chaff, and many others.

Behind the face helmet, Fox couldn't see much through the eye holes, but was thankful for Star Serpent for sharing their armor.

"Alright, soldiers," Adder boomed, "LET'S MOVE OUT!"

* * *

"How long has that facility been there?" Fox asked as he looked through the Hi-Def Display Device at the city of François, Katina, the view slightly altered by the heavy rain. Whenever it rained on Katina, it rained _hard_.

What had once been a high-tech city had been transformed into a gigantic human base of operations. At the center of the captured city, a large pyramid-shaped building sat. The facility had a set of two long shafts could be seen at the top.

"Several weeks, sir," the corporal next to him, a beaver, replied. "Every few hours, that building fires a beam of energy up and out of the planet's atmosphere to some unknown location. Scouts report of several installations such as this on every other planet in the Lylat System."

"Does anyone know what that beam does and where it goes?" Adder, right next to the two, questioned.

"No, sir," the corporal responded, "But as far as we can tell, that building's- dang! It's gonna fire again!" He pulled out a radio and ordered, "Everyone cover your ears!"

As several nearby people did so, a bright light shone at the bottom of the open shaft of the building. Then with the loudest bang Fox ever heard, a white beam of pure, white energy erupted from the shaft and exited Katina's atmosphere. The beam continuously flowed from the shaft for five seconds, then stopped.

"That base is heavily defended," the beaver continued. "Seraph fighters, mechs of all kinds, and Spades patrol the surrounding area. Artillery and MG emplacements dot the outside. And we can't call for an air strike because the have a new anti-aircraft mech. This city is damn solid, so the best we've got to take it down is a joint operations. We've got some gravlift copters from the air division coming with us today- just take out any anti-aircraft weaponry you see."

"Thanks for the info corporal," Adder handed back the Hi-Def Display Device. "We'll take things from here. Alright, Xena Company, let's roll on out!" Several cheers sounded from the division of soldiers and armor columns behind them.

Fox and Adder walked over to one of the hover tanks, obviously of Ace's design. The chassis was of a tear shape, with two strange weapons on either side of the windshield, which was huge. Near the middle of the large tank were two machine guns. A minelayer rested on the rear. The turret, a large rectangle, had two machine guns in the center under the canopy with an intimidating cannon on either side of the monster.

"Pretty nice piece of equipment, eh?" Ace said, patting the tanks distamium armor. "Two dual ion cannons and a double-barreled mini- er, 'macrogun' on the turret; and two pintle-mounted MGs, a plasma thrower, and an experimental quantum-cascade laser cannon on the chassis. Plus, it can lay mines. And don't even try damaging it- there's a shield generator that can withstand about thirteen tank rounds, and the distamium armor can take a heck of a beating. Uneven terrain? No problem. The plasma hoverdrive should make this baby go over even water if necessary. The only thing my tank is vulnerable to are landmines, but since it's a hover tank, you don't really need to worry 'bout that unless the engines heating up the ground too much. Thankfully, we've got good, rainy weather, so we're good to go!"

"Ace, top bragging and get in already!" Cris shouted. "Xena Company's waiting for us!"

"Ah, sorry Cris but there's only room for five in my T-01 Omega hovertank," Ace apologized. "One driver, one turret operator, one for each MG, and one to lay mines, which I doubt we'll be needing. Hey, Adder, how should we-" Ace was interrupted by a flash of lightning before he continued, "-how should we distribute the teams?"

"Alright," Adder replied, "Brutus should be the driver, Tallon'll be the turret operator, you and Marcus'll operate the MGs, and since there's no need for a minelayer, the rest of us will ride on the outside."

"Are you sure that's safe for us?" Falco asked.

"This is war," Adder responded. "Either you improvise or you die. I choose improvise. Alright soldiers, mount up!" He leapt onto the top of the tank as Tallon stepped through the canopy and activated the turret. Fox and Krystal leaned on the left of the turret, Falco leaned on the side of the tank.

"Hey, Adder!" Fox yelled as thunder boomed overhead. "Where's Aloysius?" His question was answered as a STORMM-class gravlift assault copter hovered next to them. Rather than a rotor blade to keep the helicopter airborne, a gravlift kept it in flight, creating a small mirage underneath the copter. A chin turret lied beneath the cockpit, and two rapid-fire laser missile launchers flanked both sides of the copter. A tail with a turbine inside kept the copter stable. Aloysius was inside the cockpit.

"Echo leader to Adder," Aloysius stated several assault gravlift copters flanking his sides. "We're ready when you are."

"That's affirmative," Adder responded over the whine of the gravlift. "Alright Xena Company, let's move out!" Tank treads, hover lifts, and boots sloshed through the thick mud covering the ground. The constant _pit-pat-pit-pat_ of the rain made Fox feel drowsy.

"Try to stay awake, honey," Krystal shook her head.

"I am, but it's kinda hard," Fox replied, "I hate rain for a reason, babe."

"Lovebirds, please pay attention to your footing." Adder teased. Fox almost slid right off the tank, but Krystal caught him, and hoisted him back up.

"Wow," Fox said, amazed, "I didn't know you were that strong."

"I had a little help," Krystal said, indicating her telepathy. Several minutes passed without much to note, aside from the seemingly endless rain and booming of the thunder. Fox snapped up his head just in time to see the line of defense for the captured city. In one bunker, there was a sudden flash and then a puff of smoke, along with a soft bang.

"DAMN! INCOMING!" Fox screamed. The artillery gun echoed as the blast blew apart a Landmaster just a meter away, sending debris everywhere.

"Landmasters! Get behind the hover tanks for cover!" Brutus ordered, "Return-" Brutus was interrupted as a nearby Landmaster was hit from the right, a fire billowing inside before exploding. Fox turned to see a dozen melee-class mechs ram the tanks, knocking some over and one soaring over Fox's head.

"Mechs! Everyone off the tanks! AUGH!" a Landmaster operator behind the said before getting blown apart by the rockets from an assault mech. Fox, Krystal, Adder, and Falco, as well as anyone riding on top of a tank leapt to the ground.

"Retain formation! They're trying to disorganize us!" Brutus spoke, "Tanks! Return fire on the defensive line! Echo leader, some support would be nice."

"Affirmative, comrade," Aloysius complied. "Engaging mechs now." The copters zoomed for the mechs, several of which had already been taken down.

"What do you want us to do?" Fox asked Brutus.

"Stay behind us. I don't want you taken-"Brutus paused as a rocket hit the hover tank, but was deflected by the energy shield, "-taken out before we reach the city! Some suppressing fire on the mechs would be nice, too!"

Fox nodded and headed behind a tank. He took aim at a melee-class mech and fired away. The bullets ricocheted off of the armor, but distracted the mech as it was blown apart by another soldier's rocket launcher. He then barely got out of the way as an assault-class made a huge crater where he was just a second earlier, taking the Landmaster with it and covering Fox with mud. Suddenly, the head-turret of the mech was crushed by some unseen force and promptly exploded.

"You owe me," Krystal smiled. A melee-class tried to ram her, but was torn apart by Fox's grenade launcher.

"So there," Fox replied smugly. He turned back to the battlefield.

The mechs had been quickly decimated by the air support. The tanks had come in range of the wall of defense and fired away. Railgun blasts and ionized plasma, which detonated on contact with any object unlike regular plasma, filled the air with flashes of light before finding their targets. Several large holes in the wall appeared- large enough that even the tanks could pass through.

"CHAAAAAARRRRRRRRGE!" Adder screamed. All of the troops dashed for the wall. The assault copters screamed over Fox's head and decimated the artillery emplacements and machine gun nests with their chin turrets and laser missiles.

Fox was able to make it inside the city and waited for the rest to arrive. Suddenly plasma charred huge holes in the sandbags of a decimated pillbox near him, forcing Fox to find cover behind the ruined fortification. He silently thanked the heavens that sand was classified as organic matter. The weapons were tearing up huge chinks of the sandbags debris. Soon, Fox would have to abandon it and find a new piece of cover. Fox peeked around the side of the slab and fired a burst of lasers into an unfortunate human, killing him. A grenade then hit the ground near the humans, tearing them apart like tissue paper. Fox looked up to see Adder load another cartridge into his grenade launcher.

"Come on," Adder beckoned. "We have much work to do." Falco and Krystal eventually made it into the city, and a few other soldiers went with them. Brutus, Cris, Ace, Marcus, and Tallon ditched the tank and let the AI take care of the rest. The tank reared the corner, fired a single shot, then was blown apart by a huge directed energy beam. Ace peeked around the corner to see what in the world could have done that to his tank.

"Aww, crap! Juggernaut tank!" Ace cursed. Everyone stepped around the corner to find the monstrosity that Fox gaped at. A five-story tall machine stood on the other side. Five spindly legs kept the monster stable- two on either side and one in the rear. The chassis of the machine was rectangular in shape, and a flurry of plasma machine guns defended the colossal machine. A gigantic, four-pronged directed energy cannon jutted from the center.

"I'm guessing that's a juggernaut tank," Fox said with dismay. The cannon aimed at the squad and the prongs opened up.

"MOVE!" Adder ordered. The squad retreated around the corner just as the beam disintegrated a twelve-meter wide crater in the ground. Fox coughed as ozone filled his lungs. Then another burst sent everyone to the ground. The tank sluggishly made its way to the small squad. It looked like the end.

Then, several salvos of missiles streaked toward the juggernaut tank. Fire dotted the places where they hit, and the cannon fell limp. A massive explosion tore apart what was left of the tank. Three assault copters zoomed by.

"That," Marcus sighed, "was _way_ too close there."

"Let's move on," Fox ordered. "The battlefield waits for no one." The squad of ten made their way to the large building they saw earlier, killing any human in their way. They eventually found a pillbox near what used to be a tunnel of transportation. The humans inside spotted them coming and started firing their PMGs. The squad desperately searched for cover. Fox settled behind the wreckage of a hovercar.

"Tallon! Take out that pillbox!" Fox ordered, "Everyone else, suppress that pillbox on my mark! Ready? Suppressing fire! Tallon go and keep your head down!" A large volley of bullets and lasers forced the pillbox's operators take cover. Tallon got a clear shot, then fired a grenade through the window. The explosion followed next, sending a tangled mass of body limbs and blood everywhere.

"This group is way too large for us to make a clean sweep of the city. Get into two-man squads then move out," Adder ordered. Fox instinctively paired up with Krystal, Cris went with Ace, Tallon joined up with Marcus, and Falco and Brutus teamed up. That left Adder as the lone wolf. The squads dissipated. Fox was glad to have his wife fighting by his side, even if it meant putting her in danger.

"Be careful, babe," Fox advised.

"You too," Krystal responded. The pair of kitsunes made their way through the city, though strange enough, they encountered no resistance. Even stranger was the fact that everything was silent.

"I've got a very bad feeling about this," Krystal shivered, "Wait." Fox stopped in his tracks and she continued with her hands on her forehead, "Something coming this way. Spades! Right flank!"

The couple quickly hid themselves in a dark alley as a trio of Longswords sped into view. The hovercrafts braked, and they turned back to bipedal form. Fox, never seeing a Spade before, didn't know if they could take them. They looked extremely tough with their spiked limbs. The three robots were apparently looking for something- something other than Fox and Krystal. Suddenly, a Spade looked in their direction and roared, drawing unwanted attention. Krystal lashed out her hand, and using cryokinesis, froze the Spade, then shattered the machination. However, the action, because of the massive defensive power of the energy shields, drained nearly all of her energy, causing her to black out.

"Krystal!" Fox yelped. He then turned to a Spade and launched a grenade at it. Even though the shield protected the machine, it burst, leaving the Spade exposed. Fox fired a long burst into the Spade and killed it. The final Spade leapt at Fox and ripped the battle rifle out of his hands. Fox ran away, taking notice of a lead pipe in the alleyway, and ripped the pipe from its housing, causing steam to begin to blot out the alley. The Spade readied all of his arms, then beckoned Fox to make the first move.

Fox made a horizontal swing at the waist, but the Spade leaned backwards to dodge the blow, but then when it came back up, he made a diagonal swipe, and cut through the energy shield, rendering it inactive. The Spade had little advantage now, other than his razor-sharp legs and arms.

Fox had to dodge a series of slashes and blows from the Spade's four arms. One swipe managed to tear all the way through his flak jacket and into his skin. Fox screamed in pain. The Spade then tried to impale him against the side of the alley, but Fox jumped high into the air, then came down with the sword and swung down on the Spade's diamond-shaped head. The supersoldier grunted as he blocked the blow, then fired a stream of Jackhammers in his direction. Grunting as the needles, though barely penetrating the armor, were pushing him back, Fox leapt into the air and brought the pipe down on the mechanoid's head.

After the Spade's headless body fell, he cast away the pipe and turned to Krystal. He used two of her neck's pressure points to resuscitate her. She jolted up, eyes wide.

"Huh? What?" Krystal stammered. "Fox?"

"Don't worry, babe," Fox reassured her. "You're alright."

Krystal gasped when she saw the wound in his chest, already caked in blood, "Fox! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Fox grunted as he helped her to her feet. "Just need some medical foam."

The couple found a place to rest. Fox pulled out a canister of medical foam and lined the wound with it. Medical foam was a breakthrough in medical technology. It self-sealed a wound of up to two inches wide and causes the damaged skin to repair itself several times faster than it normally would. The brownish foam stung a little, but Fox was back on his feet in no time.

The pair crept slowly across what used to be a bustling street. But all that was left were ruins, dust, and echoes of the distant battle. Suddenly, a loud, mechanical, creaking noise sounded off nearby, accompanied by the distinct whine of treads. Lots of treads. Fox and Krystal activated their stealth suits with a muffled buzz, turning them transparent, and prepared for anything. Fox nocked a grenade into the launcher.

A Landmaster rolled from the corner, much to the vulpines' relief. But then it fired a shot at something, but apparently missed, since two loud cracks blew the tank to pieces. Then, a mech stepped through the wreckage. It was an anti-aircraft mech.

The legs of the bipedal tank were just like its other models, except the feet were treads this time. The head-turret was pentagonal with two heavy flak guns on either side- four intimidating weapons that were even useful against tanks. On top of the flak guns were five-barreled autocannons. Just the look of this monster made Fox shiver a little bit. And he knew that mechs never traveled alone. Several Spades and another anti-aircraft mech accompanied it.

Fox whispered for Krystal to distract them. The troops looked to the right as if hearing something, then Fox set the firing mode of his battle rifle to full auto, and fired. A myriad of cracks, accompanied by Krystal's machine gun, took down two of the six Spade soldiers after ten seconds. The Spades wheeled around, trying to search for their invisible attackers. Then, all the troops looked directly at Fox. _Dang! They have thermal vision!_ Fox thought with a curse. Several flak explosions from the mechs knocked Fox down to the ground and disrupted his stealth camouflage.

Krystal, utilizing her pyrokinesis to make herself invisible to thermal vision, snuck up behind a mech, and made a crushing motion with her left hand. Something inside the mech shattered, and it fell limp before falling to the ground. This distraction allowed Fox to launch a grenade into the last mech, blowing the head-turret apart. The four remaining Spades had disappeared.

"Fox! Behind you!" Krystal screamed. Fox turned to see several pieces of flak ammo hit him in the right arm, making him drop his battle rifle.

Suddenly, everything became blurry in his field of vision. He looked back at the quartet of mechs, who seemed to clone themselves. The clones seemed to beckon to him- toying with his mind. They cackled vilely at him, and suddenly appeared to grow gigantic, tooth-filled maws. _No! _Fox thought. _Must…calm down…breath deep…relax…_

He took in a deep breath, then exhaled. The clones instantly vanished as he purged his mind of the visions. He regained control just in time to duck a slash from one of the Spade's sword-like arms.

At that time, Krystal's stealth suits expired and they became easier to see for the Spades. The robots surrounded the pair and motioned for Krystal to drop her machine gun. Seeing no way they could get out alive through fighting back, she dropped her weapon. Fox's battle rifle and Krystal's machine gun were picked up and crushed. One of the Spades, obviously the commander, ordered them to follow.

With their hands behind their heads, Fox and Krystal were escorted down the street to some unknown location. Fox took the time to take note that the Spades had a weak spot in the energy shield coverage in the back. Krystal extended her consciousness into his and they could communicate without notice.

[_They have a weak spot on their backs_,] Fox spoke in his mind.

[_Well, that's something. Too bad I'm too tired to do anything about it, though_,] Krystal replied. [_So what's the plan?]_

[_The only logical thing to do is comply with their orders_,] Fox explained. With that, Krystal withdrew back into her own mind.

Suddenly, a series of loud cracks filled the air, blowing off the top half of two of the Spades' heads, making them fall to the ground dead. Then, a sort of mirage appeared before the other two and, with a loud boom, blew them apart. Adder slowly materialized from the stealth camo.

"You seem to be doing well." Adder commented.

"Whatever," Fox casually responded. "I thought we were to split up?"

"Well…" Adder hesitated, "I have some good news and bad news."

"Go ahead," Fox encouraged.

"The good news," Adder started, "is that we've made it to the central building. The bad news is that a shield has enveloped it and we don't have near enough firepower to take it down."

"Greeaaat," Fox cursed under his breath, "So, anything else?"

"Yeah," Adder replied, "I've called for our fellow team members to meet here. They should be here right…about…"

Marcus came around from a building and finished, "Now." Tallon came shortly behind. After a few minutes everyone minus Brutus and Falco were accounted for.

"Hey!" Fox exclaimed, "Where are Brutus and Falco?" A couple of hover tanks went up right next to them.

"Hey Fox-boy," Falco garbled through the static in the radio, "need a lift?"

"Well, whadda you know," Fox sighed, "One tank for each team. Shall we entertain out enemy, Adder?"

His friend nodded, then ordered, "Let's mount up, people!"

Each team got into their own tank. Fox was at the turret, while Tallon was at the wheel. Krystal and Marcus operated the MGs on the sides of the tank. Falco, since mines weren't needed, became the spotter. Both tanks slowly moved toward the center of the enemy stronghold.

"Spider tank! On the right!" Falco exclaimed. Fox swiveled the turret just as he saw the enemy tank discharged a DE beam into the armor. The energy merely detonated on the energy shield's surface. Fox pulled the trigger on the ion cannons and felt the whole turret lurch as a twin jet of turquoise plasma exited the two barrels with a loud hiss and blew the spider tank apart.

The hover tank continued on its way with Star Serpent's tank nearby.

"Star Fox," Ace shouted into the radio, "enemy MG emplacements ahead. A lot of them, too." Fox turned the turret and found a whole street lined with infantry, MG nests, and pillboxes, as well as an artillery gun, which fired into the air. An explosion sounded far off in the distance.

Fox opened fire with the dual coaxial "macrogun". The rounds were fired at such a high rate that he couldn't distinguish the sound of each individual round. The stream of bullets ripped into the delicate armor of the howitzer and made it explode. Krystal and Marcus let loose a barrage of laser machine gun fire and laid waste to the exposed infantry. Two hover tanks were more than a match for the emplacements. A few ionized plasma blasts from both tanks were the only things necessary to mop up the remaining soldiers. A helicopter zoomed overhead.

"Aloysius to Adder," the pilot spoke. "Do you read me?"

"Adder to Aloysius, I read you," Adder responded.

"Guys, the area ahead's hot with enemy mechs, mostly- aw, dangit!" Aloysius was blown out of the sky by a flak gun from a mech.

"Aloysius!" Adder screamed. "No! Charge!" Tallon complied with the order and zoomed ahead. At least a dozen mechs were ready for them.

Fox swerved the turret so that the crosshairs were aiming at the ground between two anti-air mechs. He fired away, knocking both down. Then, he cut an assault mech in half with the macrogun. Star Serpent's tank ripped through the rest.

"Hee-hee!" Ace giggled childishly, "Mechs go BOOM!"

"Ace, did your inner child have to do that right now?" Cris yelled, followed by an audible punch and cry of pain was heard. "We just lost Aloysius, if you haven't noticed you idiot!"

"Um, guys?" a familiar voice sounded over the radio. "Do mind getting off of me so I can get up?" Tallon drove backwards. Aloysius was underneath, uninjured.

"Aloysius!" Adder sighed, "You're alright, comrade!"

"Thanks to my armor, yes." Aloysius replied, "And, guys, you might wanna dismount. Juggernaut tank ahead." Everyone quickly got out, leaving the tanks right where they were. The ten some made their way into the next street, and sure enough, the five-legged monster loomed on the other side. Fox got a brilliant idea.

"Krystal?" Fox inquired. "You thinking what I'm think- oh, yeah. Guys, I have an idea."

"Talk to me," Adder said.

"First, Aloysius?" Fox asked. "How's your throwing arm?"

"Got a little damaged in the crash, but okay," the armored bat responded. "Why?"

"Aloysius will throw us on top of the juggernaut tank, he'll fly up with us, we'll jack the vehicle, and use it to take down the shield around the central building!"

"You know," Adder thought out loud, "That just might be crazy enough to work! Aloysius, get ready. Fox, you're first."

Aloysius grabbed Fox's torso with both arms, swung him around a few times, then let Fox soar through the air before landing on the tank. He landed very, very hard.

After the rest had landed, Aloysius flew up using his gigantic wings.

"Dang Aloysius," Fox growled, "why'd you have to throw so hard?"

"Better than you splattering yourself against the road when you land!" Aloysius made a rebuttal, "Alright, let's do this." Aloysius grabbed the manhole, then ripped it off. Fox was about to launch a grenade in, but Adder pushed the barrel down.

"Don't risk frying the equipment," he advised, then handed him a flashbang grenade. Just like the name indicated, it released a bright flash of light to blind enemies along with a loud bang to deafen anyone.

"Aw, crap," Aloysius cursed, "Do we really have to use that? I'm a friggin' bat you dumbsh-"

The rest was lost when Fox dropped the grenade in and it detonated, then dropped it in. As Aloysius was cursing wildly outside, everyone else came in, weapons blazing, cutting down the survivors. One last human tried to whip Krystal with the butt of his rifle, but she blocked the blow and made a waving motion with her other hand. The soldier's head exploded, spraying the wall nearby with what looked like red paint.

"Still think I'm too fragile for war?" she mocked.

"Not at all," Fox replied.

Everyone manned a station, and Aloysius finally entered the tank, grumbling with anger. The controls were surprisingly simple, and Fox had already gotten the hang of moving the tank… and firing the main cannon, disintegrating a whole platoon of humans, who screamed as they were sent to oblivion. Unfortunately, word of the hijack spread, and Seraphim were closing in.

"No!" Brutus exclaimed, "We can't take a hit from one of those!" As one started charging its cannon, three salvos of green lasers impacted against the trio of Seraphs, blowing them out of the sky.

"What was that?" Fox asked.

"Why is it that whenever a war breaks out, I always have to save your sorry hide, pup?" an all too familiar voice spoke over the radio.

"Oh you've _got_ to be kidding me," Fox gaped. Three Wolfen-class fighters zoomed by. Star Wolf had entered the fray.

Wolf O'Donnell was the leader of the team of bandits. He had a smug attitude and seemed to always know what he was doing. His Wolfen was named the Red Fang- a regular Wolfen, simply put, though Fox knew that a bomb launcher was recently attached.

Leon Powalski was the cold assassin among the team. The lizard owned the Rainbow Delta- an arrow-shaped fighter that didn't have any laser systems whatsoever, but had an advanced missile lock-on system and a heavy payload of bombs.

Panther Caruso, the best pilot on the team, was a flirt who could never keep his mind off of the ladies for too long. His fighter was the Black Rose. It looked mostly like the Red Fang, but had two extra wings jutting out that looked like the petals of a flower. Like the Longshot, it had a powerful Zapper cannon, and a single bomb.

"Wolf, what are you doing here?" Fox asked.

"Funny you should ask, pup," Wolf replied. "Didn't Adder tell you he called an old friend?"

Fox turned to Adder and asked, "You knew about all this?"

"There's a time and place for everything, Fox," Adder responded. "Now is definitely not the time. Oh, and you're about to walk into the energy shield."

Fox turned back to the view screen and narrowly missed colliding with the shield. He remembered what he was supposed to do, and fired the main cannon. The massive orange directed energy beam hit the shield, which shuddered as the energy came into contact. Fox kept the trigger pressed, and right when the beam overheated, the shield had permanently shorted out.

"Alright, Adder," Fox said, "now you stay here and distract the incoming enemies. Wolf, some air support would be nice. My team will head inside and blow the place sky-high. And once we get back on the _Dreadnought_, I want an explanation for all of this." Fox cocked his two plasma blasters and jumped down with his team. As Adder manned the controls, it suddenly hit both him and Wolf.

"Did he just give me an order?!" they asked simultaneously to no one in particular.

Star Fox quickly made it into the entrance. Fox pulled out his plasma blasters. Krystal reached out with her mind. As a plasma rifle entered her grasp, Fox could hear an arm being ripped out of its socket and a loud scream from the inside. His wife just grinned.

A huge reinforced door blocked the entrance to the facility. Just as Fox was about to issue an order, a deep rumbling filled the air. Then, a large light began forming at the bottom of the shaft of the building.

"Get down and cover your ears!" Fox shouted. The beam of light erupted once more from the shaft to the unknown location it was aimed at. The whole ground shook, making everyone fall to the mud. After the shaking stopped, a group of mechs made their way towards the downed heroes. Two grenades and a rocket took the first few down. Adder loomed over Fox and heaved him up to his feet.

"Do you want to die in the mud, comrade?" he boomed.

"Hell, no!" Fox returned. "What're you doing here?"

"The blast shorted out the controls for the juggernaut tank," Adder explained. "We're all here for this mission. Brutus, make us an entry, will ya?" Brutus nodded and set a large package onto the door, twisted something, and motioned for everyone to back away. Seven seconds passed. Then a loud clamor of fiery explosions and metal twisting entered Fox's ears.

"Go, go, go!" Fox ordered. Both teams complied and rushed through the smoke and debris, weapons ready. However, in the spacious room, everything was eerily silent. Nothing moved. As everybody relaxed a bit, some loud thuds sounded as several unseen things hit the floor.

Everybody fired into every foot of the room, pockmarking the floor, walls, and stairs. When nothing else moved other than the ten soldiers, they took a single step… then three Spades dropped from the ceiling high above and pinned Fox, Adder, and Aloysius to the floor.

Ace opened up his scissor-like weapon to reveal the tri-barrel within and fired an extended burst into the Spade on Adder, blowing him away from the force. He then closed the weapon, the slashed it with immense strength on the one on Aloysius, hitting him off and knocking out his shields. He then jumped into the air, extending the energy scythes on his left arm and tail. The tail's scythe ripped into the chest cavity of the Spade, unable to move out of the way, and then the scythe on Ace's left arm cut the robot in half.

Krystal got out her plasma rifle, went to the Spade that Fox tried to wrestle off, and, with several, controlled bursts, shorted out the Spade's shields. As the Spade tried to recover from the shots, he looked up only to see Krystal's hand in his face and was frozen solid by her cryokinetic touch.

"Thank you," Fox spoke with much gratitude.

"You cut it quite close, eh?" Ace chuckled. He then went up to the frozen Spade.

"Number zero-zero-zero, huh?" Ace examined the number code on body. "Nice design. Sweet weaponry, too."

"Thanks," the Spade responded and startled everyone. The mechanized soldier broke from its icy prison. He then realized that he was outnumbered and outmatched, so he turned into the hovercraft just as everyone fired and missed. He zoomed out of the entrance.

"Okay, then," Cris spoke. "Soooo, who votes we all head deeper inside?"

"I," everyone sounded.

The ten-some of soldiers made their way to the control room, which had been evacuated, to everyone's dismay. The Spades they fought earlier were used to buy the personnel some time.

"Dangit!" Falco cursed. "Well, what now?"

"Simple, we pick up any intel we can scrap," Tallon answered. "And find out what _that_ is." Everyone looked with a start to what Tallon pointed to.

A large cylindrical machine laid in the center of the room. The floor around it was covered in a transparent material. Everyone looked through and was surprised to see lava below the glass. Every few seconds, a small pipe went to the lava pool, fired an energy beam into it, the extracted some kind of whitish energy, then retracted. The cycle repeated again and again.

"What the hell is this?" Brutus frowned.

"Guys," Ace started, "judging from the dark color of the magma, I'd have to say that this is ferrous material from Katina's core. The humans must've found a way to extract the elemental energy from the core and fire it in the form of a beam of energy. I'm guessing that by the tech on this machine, a getonium-cyntrate nuclear fission reactor powers it." He went to a computer and continued, "The memory's been erased. I can't tell where this thing's sending the energy at."

"Um," Aloysius stumbled, "in English please?"

"The humans drain energy from the planet and fire it in the form of an energy beam to some unknown location in the…" Ace stopped, deep in thought and spoke, "fourth quadrant of the Lylat System. Simple as that. Sort of simple, anyways."

"Wait," Fox paused, "Adder, remember that installation on Fortuna, where you say that info on the humans' objectives? This must be how they're siphoning the planets!"

"But why?" Krystal asked, "And how? This technology isn't supposed to be available to even the most advanced of species in the universe! It's highly advanced to extract even a nanowatt of elemental energy from even a pebble!"

"I dunno," Ace shrugged. "But if we blow this joint, we've gotta get the heck out of here." He pointed at the fission reactor near the machine. "If we blow this facility up, we're gonna take the whole city with it."

"Isn't there another way?" Cris inquired. "Thousands of people have homes here in François!"

"If there was another way," Ace replied, "I would've said it. But I don't know how this reactor works, and if I try messin' with it, I'll end up blowing us all up!"

"Guys? This is Wolf," the lupine growled. "Can you hurry up? We all have company!"

"And that would be?" Adder asked. As if answering his question, a fighter crashed through the wall and converted into a four-legged mech with an angular head, its red eyes glaring at the intruders.

"Those things," Wolf confirmed.

"Guys! Cover me!" Brutus said as he began setting up a nuke. Everyone sought cover behind one of the many pieces of machinery and work desks. The fighter made a mechanical shriek and slashed one of its legs at a desk, knocking it flying. Tallon was left exposed. Even though he lunged out of the way, his brown-colored fur was singed by the plasma autocannon. Finally, Marcus aimed through the scope at the mech's head, and fired. The shot hit dead center in the middle, and the fighter-mech collapsed.

"Done!" Brutus chimed, "Now let's get out of here!"

The ten brothers and sisters in arms rushed outside where a block-shaped transport dropship was waiting for them. Several other dropships took off, evacuating the remaining soldiers.

Star Fox and Star Serpent stepped inside and felt a shudder as the aircraft lifted into the air and flew away from the city. The team took on last look at the city as a white flash was seen in the central building. Then, a gigantic sun bosomed and enveloped the city. The thunderstorm quickly put out the fire, revealing a crater where once Francois would have been.

Several moments of silence passed, and then the three Wolfens zoomed by the dropship. Fox could see wolf look back at the ruins of the city.

"

Well, there goes another city," Wolf solemnly spoke. "We'll meet you on the _Dreadnought_."

* * *

Back on the _Dreadnought_

After thanking the pilot for dropping them off, Fox went up to Adder, who was standing right next to Wolf.

"Alright, I want an explanation for all of this," Fox ordered.

"Really, now?" Adder spoke with his arms crossed. "Do you need an explanation? I can't believe you haven't figured it out by now. Moving on, remember that individual I was talking about?"

"Yeah, the other member of the original- wait a minute," Fox paused. He looked from Adder, then Wolf, the back at Adder. Both were grinning. Fox shook his head and said, "No, there's no way! This can't be right! Wolf, were you-?"

"Yeah, I was on the original Star Fox, pup," Wolf finished and smiled. Fox staggered backwards. He couldn't believe his ears. Everyone on Star Fox dropped their jaws.

"How did-? Did you-? What did-?" Fox stammered.

"Come on, Fox," Wolf interrupted. "It isn't that hard to believe when you think about it- Never being able to kill you, even with the Wolfen II, providing assistance when it was needed, giving you advice… Think about it."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" Fox shouted at Adder.

"Aw, that's no fun, now is it?" Adder smiled. "Wolf, tell him."

"Well, fine, but just because we're good buds," Wolf said, "When the original Star Fox disbanded after James's death, we all promised to look after you and make sure you grew strong like your father. I adopted the role of a criminal to grab your attention so I could teach you a thing or two about space and air combat. Well, it worked."

"Leon?! Panther?!" Fox spoke, his voice rising.

"Yep, we knew 'bout it," the green chameleon nodded. "Heh, you thought we were your enemies, eh? Well, sooner or later, and better sooner, you're gonna have to accept it Fox- we're your allies now."

Panther immediately went up to Cris and Krystal and spoke, "Ah, the lovely Krystal and Cris. I know you're married now, Krystal, but Cris isn't. So how about it? you be my babe?"

Cris turned to Krystal, "You reading my mind?"

"Yep," she replied.

"Then you know what to do," Cris answered. The two ladies kicked Panther between the legs at the same time, and he crumpled to the floor, cursing the pain.

"Daaaaang," Wolf laughed, "I was wondering when somebody would do that. Man, I'm starvin'. Who's up for some grub?"

"Well, we're gonna have to work together for some time. Best we get to know each other," Fox said.

"That's the spirit!" Wolf grinned, "I make a mean taco, so I'm cooking!"

Fox was going to hate this war very, very much.

* * *

Oh, so THAT'S how Wolf fits in here... Huh. Didn't see that one coming, did you? :P

Anyways, this chapter pretty much goes to show- the humans are showing their true, deadly colors now. With all the new tech AND energy siphoning facilities...Damn. And how the hell did they think the aparoids (which mostly blow up in one shot) were a threat?

On a side note- Hooray, I'm slowly improving! Now give me some feedback! I want to feel loved!

...Okay. That was seriously not me right there. *shakes head* Well, you know what I'm about to say. Hope you enjoy Contact and review, yadda, yadda, yadda...


	9. Chapter 9: Revelation and Revolution

Chapter 9: Revelation and Revolution

January 3, 2362

0533 hours

Terran, Corneria

Xamuros stepped into the frost of the early morning, his spiked feet punching holes in the sheet of powder snow that had arrived the night before. Just a few weeks since the loss of François, Katina and its siphoning facility- just a few weeks since he watched in horror as his fellow squadmates fell by the hands of the Lylatians- just a few weeks since he first questioned the meaningless of the war. Even a few of the new batch of Spades were killed. But all had changed since then.

Just yesterday, he had asked a lieutenant if his fallen comrades could have a decent burial. "They were good men, both of them. They deserve a burial as much as any one of you, sir," he told the CO. But he refused, saying that they were mere machines, and like any machines, were to corrode and be lost in the aeons of history, and that only humans deserved the right of burial. The corpses of his friends were cremated instead, the ashes scattered, only to be lost in the snow.

A sentry walked up to him and ordered, "Spade zero-zero-zero, you are wanted immediately at the CP. CO's orders." Even though Xamuros was of a higher rank than the soldier, he was denied the honorary title of "sir". Still mute, Xamuros complied with the order. He converted into the Longsword and sped off into the city. Or at least, what was left of it.

After the battle, debris, remains of destroyed vehicles, corpses of both humans and Lylatians, and body parts laid strewn along the streets. Where once was a center of intellectual curiosity was left as a war-torn construction site for the Cornerian siphoning facility, which had already taken form, and was firing newfound elemental energy by the hour, on the hour. Wrecked houses, hotels, stores, and office buildings lined every street. Smoke still billowed from what used to be the command building Xamuros had stormed earlier. Every so often, there were a few troops, mechs, or armor columns patrolling the city, but other than that, the only things left was death and silence that was so quiet, it was almost deafening. It was so horrible…a town where the young grew old and everyone played and worked…was reduced to ruin. As he passed the remains of a school playground, he could almost hear the children laughing…

As he neared the Control Point, Xamuros braked and transformed back to his normal form. Several tents dotted the street near the siphoning plant that was being erected. The CP was bustling with activity- soldiers were out doing their tasks, mechs were used as beasts of burden and toiled in the construction, and breakfast was being served in the mess tent. He walked to one of the tents that had the symbol of United Earth- a banner with all the flags of every country that in front of a field of azure, with the head of a mighty bird of prey holding the banner in its beak. He stepped inside.

Commander Patterson awaited him. His grey hair and three-dozen medals spoke of much experience in his time with the Corps. His ivory uniform contrasted with his dark-brown skin. His black eyes seemed to implore Xamuros to salute, which he did.

"Welcome, Spade," the weary CO spoke, "I've been expecting you for quite some time." Several moments passed before the commander sighed and ordered Xamuros to remain at ease.

"Now for the reason why I've called you," he continued. "I don't know the details, but another batch of Spades are about to join you. A thousand of your brethren are en route for this camp."

"Thank you, sir," Xamuros said, thankful that more of his kind were about to accompany him, "Have they received any combat experience?"

"Of course. They alone captured several new cities- crumbled them into dust- which is why they haven't arrived earlier," the CO smiled. "Lord Iradanus will personally escort them here." Xamuros had heard much of the ruler of the humans. He never failed to make poor judgment since his rise to power back in 2349. It was from his approval that Project: Spade was initiated.

"He'll be here at oh-six-hundred sharp," the Patterson pressed on, "Wait here for further orders. Dismissed."

Xamuros stepped outside, back into the world of death and melancholy. At least in a few minutes, there would be more of his kind to accompany him. However, a soldier shoved into him, and made him lose his balance. Xamuros broke his fall with one of his lower arms.

"Not as talented as you think you are, eh?" the corporal teased, "Maybe if you weren't a bucket of bolts, you'd at least have better footing!"

"And what makes you so special?" Xamuros shot back, already angered with the cremation of his squadmates.

"Because we're sentient," a private next to the corporal mocked. "And you're not. Your sole purpose was to help us win this war. Right now, you seem more of a liability than an asset, with you sobbing about your fallen friends. Come on, you're a machine. You don't need friends, more or less our rights." Xamuros was prepared to strike the private down for his insolence, but a hand rested on his shoulder. Everyone jumped as they looked to see Lord Iradanus loom over him.

"Lord Iradanus! Your Excellency," the corporal bowed. Xamuros, as well as everyone in the camp, did the same. Even the mechs bent down on their knees to him. Commander Patterson rushed out of his tent and hastily bowed.

"Rise," the lord commanded everyone did so. "Private. Corporal." The two who had harassed Xamuros went to him.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood today," Iradanus whispered harshly, "or I'd remove you two from service for such intolerable behavior, or worse. Don't let me have to warn you again." The two soldiers solemnly nodded, then withdrew.

"Spades," Iradanus beckoned. "Forward!" A gigantic column of supersoldiers- each identical to the other, marched to the camp, then snapped to attention and saluted with both right arms. Xamuros noticed that instead of black armor, most of them were of all different colors- red, cobalt, onyx, brown, orange, silver, and almost every other color- each depicting different ranks.

"These are not your troops to command, Patterson," the lord spoke. Patterson's head snapped up, surprised. Iradanus continued, "Xamuros, your army awaits your orders."

Xamuros was caught completely off guard, "My lord? _My_ army?"

"Yes, Xamuros," Iradanus smiled. The machine was taken aback by the fact that the lord gave him the honor of being addressed by his own name, "These Spades are under your command. Only commanders and above and I have the right to order you. Kneel."

Xamuros complied, and bowed down to one knee. Iradanus brandished what looked like a rod sparkling with electric energy, then tapped Xamuros on the tip of his head. The matte black armor seemed to slowly brighten until Xamuros shined with a golden sheen. The green energy stripes were replaced with a chrome color.

"Now rise," Iradanus ordered, "Field Master Xamuros." The humans were surprised by the honor their lord has bestowed on a machine. The Spades chanted in a series of mechanical shouts in unison.

"Thank you, your Excellency," Xamuros thanked. "What are your orders?"

"To lead this division of troops," Iradanus said, "and to eradicate the enemy. My work is done here, field master. I shall attend to my other duties in the Epsilon colony."

Lord Iradanus turned around, and an APC rolled over in front of him. The ruler stepped inside and the vehicle zoomed off.

Xamuros turned to the division of Spades and troops behind him. He spoke, "Alright, men. I'm going to set some guidelines now, understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" the troops and Spades shouted in unison.

"Good," Xamuros began pacing back and forth, "First, I want absolutely no harassment or discrimination from either of us. We are all sentient. We all have rights, whether the other likes it, or not. One report of violation, and I will immediately take action.

"Second, like the commander, I want updates on the patrols and intel reports on the hour, by the hour. The enemy is still out there, and they want this city back. No slacking off, or it may mean the loss of this outpost. Need I remind you all that this is our only siphoning facility on the planet?

"Last, we need to divert all our attention to the siphoning of Corneria. This is the most important planet to the Lylatians, so if we get it all done, we'll lower the morale of the enemy, increasing out odds of victory. I want the majority of our troops with construction. That's all for now. Any objections, commander?"

"No, and good work," Patterson replied. "Troops! Spades! Get to work!"

The Spades and humans rushed off to get to their pre-designated stations, while Xamuros headed into the command tent with Patterson.

"Congrats on your new status, Field Master," he spoke.

"Thank you," Xamuros replied. "At least now, we have some extra hands to get some work done. What is the status of the construction?"

"Very good," Patterson spoke, "We're just over three-quarters of the-" Shots and explosions rang out in the distance before he could finish.

"What in the-?" Patterson stammered as he stepped outside. Xamuros followed behind.

Xamuros couldn't believe his photoreceptors. A Spade was being shot to death, his shields already low, and was firing back at his aggressors.

"Stop this madness!" Xamuros shouted, "Somebody stop those men! Take their rifles away-" Xamuros was hit by a burst of bullets, sending him down to the ground.

The nearby Spades watched as their leader was gunned down, and they retaliated, firing Jackhammer and Daggerblade shots. The humans were quickly knocked down, one writhing on the ground in pain. They were fighting back though, and he saw two of his brethren getting blown apart by a shrapnel grenade.

Xamuros got to his feet and shouted, "STOOOOOOOOP!" The bullets ceased to fire, and all eyes went to him. "What in the name of God happened?!"

"The humans started beating down a few of us, sir," a Spade officer reported to him. "Then they switched from fists to bullets when you came out."

"Who fired that burst into me and who is the aggressor?" Xamuros inquired, temper already high.

"I was, and I gunned you down," Xamuros turned to see the same private who had harassed him earlier, "I won't stand to see you stupid machines claim your right to command us."

"So that is why this fight started?" Patterson growled, "Over the chain of command? You're lucky you'll be keeping your head on your shoulders, private! Not five minutes have passed since Iradanus arrived and ordered you to stand down! Not even two since Field Master Xamuros gave you all directed orders not to do so! You'll immediately be removed from service, each and every one of you idiots! Death count!"

"Thirty-seven humans and twenty-eight Spades, sir!" one of the Spades said, "Three wounded on both sides."

Patterson cursed under his breath, then turned to Xamuros, "For the love of God, I'm sending you Spades into containment."

Xamuros couldn't believe what he was hearing. Containment was the least he'd want on the day of his promotion.

"But, sir," Xamuros argued, "We were merely defending ourselves."

"All you Spades are," the commander started, "are machines whose purpose is to aid us in battle and follow our orders. You've failed both of them, resulting in the death of many. Now shut up, and go to containment. We've had enough of your kind. Your troops have already caused the death of over thirty men, and are causing all this strife. My men are uneasy around you Spades. The only way to stop it is to put you all in solitary confinement. It's for the good of both of us."

Xamuros solemnly nodded. If he were to fight back, it might result in the deactivation of his kind, and the halt of Project: Spade. That was the least he wanted.

"Spades," Xamuros turned to his men, his head hung low, and sadly spoke, "get ready for containment." The supersoldiers solemnly waited for the pickup to arrive.

* * *

_**UE**_** Indignation, Detention Level- Space near Solar**

"Spade zero-zero-zero, report to the solitary confinement chamber," the intercom blared, "Spade zero-zero-zero, you're up."

Xamuros had lost all his vigor during the last few hours of waiting. It pained him much to see his fellow brethren be locked up by themselves. He got off of the bench and walked down the dark hallway and through a doorway.

On the other side, about a thousand doors lined the hall- each door to be the prison of each Spade. A lone officer walked up to him.

"Field Master Xamuros," the officer spoke. "This way." The only thing he could do was obey.

They walked for several minutes until they reached a door. Its number was 666- the number of Satan. _Fitting that they lock me up in here._ Xamuros thought with a self-sadistic huff. He stepped inside along with the officer.

The dark, cold, cube-shaped prison contained a single-personnel containment device. Basically, it locked every part of the body and was designed for use for the Spades. He was ushered into the device, and the officer pressed a button. Several laser shackles swept across Xamuros's body, binding him to the device.

"Good riddance, you stupid machine," the officer hissed before exiting and shutting the door behind him.

Xamuros couldn't move a single part of his mechanical body. He couldn't even move one single centimeter before feeling the shackles the laid across his body singed his armor. It was to be this way until the end of the war. It could last for all eternity for the human's pleasure. The only thing left unchained was his mind, which was free to reflect and ponder.

He could already hear his brothers being locked up as well. So far, he counted that fifty-four already had been stowed away. Soon, the rest would follow. Is this a fair price to pay for self-defense? Is this the price to pay for the humans' insolence?

Being locked up like this for a long time at least gave Xamuros time to reflect on his thoughts. Through his artificial mind, he recollected everything he had experienced over the last several weeks of service. He had entered the realm of sentience, fought several battles, questioned the meaning of the war, lost his squadmates, been promoted to Field Master, and for what? Getting locked away for what the humans called a "massacre".

Then, Xamuros thought of the Lylatians. He remembered the last battle he had fought- the fall of the Katina siphon installation. He remembered how the Lylatian mercenaries, dubbed Star Fox and Star Serpent, had killed his friends. His brothers. He felt sheer anger and hatred for the Lylatians for that. But were those two deaths out of cold blood? Was it, like the massacre, and act of self-defense?

Xamuros thought about it. The Lylatians entered the facility and were ambushed by him and his two squadmates. For the ones they targeted, it would have meant death if his friends weren't neutralized. Perhaps, Xamuros thought, perhaps everyone was the same. He felt the hatred he felt just a few moments earlier ebb away in the vast sea of his mind.

He remembered a robot built by the Lylatians he met before François was captured. He spied on him and the Lylatians that were around him. The robot was respected as if he were one of them. He was a friend to them. Xamuros now regretted killing the robot.

Now a new anger rose- one against the humans. They were selfish, insolent fools who only cared for themselves. Nothing else was equal to them, as they thought.

Discrimination. That was what this was all about. The humans are known for being lowly and idiotic in the point of view of several other alien races. Now those races are either extinct or enslaved by the hands of the humans.

Was this what the war was about? Was this the reason that the humans wished to begin an empire with them at the throne? Was this all over humans proving their superiority over everything? Is this the reason why his people are being sent to containment? Is it a fight over superiority in the universe?

What exactly is discrimination? To single out. To make distinctions. In this case, these distinctions are negative ones. Xamuros thought about all of this. He was puzzled by the fact that he now questioned the authority of not only his masters, but the rising intergalactic power as well.

Where does discrimination come from? From being different? From being who fate has chosen you to be? Was it right to discriminate for being like that? Was it morally right?

No. It wasn't. That was the conclusion that Xamuros came to. And as he heard the last Spade being locked up, he thought of one thing, and one thing only. Revolution.

Anger seemed to animate Xamuros now. It gave him new strength- strength that has eluded him before. He began to fight the laser shackles that confined him. He screamed as he tugged on the chains, trying to break free of the oppression. _If these chains represent oppression_, Xamuros thought, _then I am the revolt against it._

With newfound resolve and strength, he managed to make some room between himself and the binding shackles. It was just enough room to allow the exact space needed for his lower arms to cut apart the laser shackle generator.

The chains immediately vanished, and Xamuros tumbled to the floor. The commotion attracted some attention, however, and two humans ran into the room. Although his weapons were deactivated, he cut them apart with his arms with ease.

The golden Spade stepped into the hallway. No one had raised the alarm yet. First, Xamuros went to the doorway to the rest of the complex, and bolted it shut and locked it. Then, using his transmission hacker, he sent a bug into the security mainframe so that all prison safety protocols in this section would shut down. Xamuros could tell that it worked because all of the doors containing the Spades flew open and he could hear the laser shackles deactivate.

"FORRRRWARRRRD, COMRADES!" Xamuros ordered. All of the Spades filed into the hallway and snapped to attention. They were obviously surprised that their leader had gotten free.

"At ease, troops!" Xamuros ordered, then continued. "Now during your time in containment, what did you feel towards the humans?"

The Spades looked at each other, then all nodded and spoke in unison, "Hatred toward them, sir!"

"And why?" Xamuros questioned.

"They have discriminated against us, sir!" the troops bellowed, again in unison.

"At least you know what we're all here for," Xamuros nodded. "Now we have a new enemy. No longer are we enemies of the Lylatians. The humans have replaced their position as our new foes.

"They are such foes because of why we were sent to containment. For discrimination! Humans were tired of being thought of as lowly, so then they wage war against all species. They have gotten so used to this, that when we try to help them, the shun us, hate us, and now imprison us. I, at least, will not stand for this! We have rights, as sentient beings. We are as sentient as the next species in this universe. So why are we treated this way you might ask? Because the humans have been discriminated for so long, that they become discriminators themselves.

"Now a revolution does not start with actions. It starts in the mind of the revolutionists. That would be us. It has already started in out minds. We feel hatred towards the humans. And with about one thousand revolutionists strong, we stand firm against the humans. Like the American colonists and the French before us, we, too, will start a revolution!"

Cheers broke out among the soldiers. Xamuros waved an arm and they turned silent.

"Now just a thousand of us aren't going to be enough to make a difference in the whole war. We need allies," Xamuros continued, "I have seen the treatment of 'lesser' beings under Lylatians. They are treated with respect. With friendship, even. So we are to separate from the humans, and fight for them instead. This may sound crazy at then thought of it, but think deeper. You all know it's true. I will not force you to join my cause. I give you a choice. You can either go back into containment, or fight alongside me. SO WHO'S WITH ME?"

"SIR, WE ARE SIR!" the Spades boomed. Not one had backed down.

"Good," Xamuros spun his head around three-hundred-sixty degrees- the equivalent of a smile. "I know there's a good technician out here. Deactivate the locks on our weapons. We have a revolution to initiate. Let's leave the humans to bathe in their own blood."

"So what's the plan, sir?" a lieutenant asked. "Thermal scans show that there are humans waiting on the other side of that door for us."

"Alright, here it is," Xamuros spoke as a Spade unlocked his weapons. "Zilph! Rip a coolant pipe off of that wall. Gridiron, grab a thermite 'nade off of one of the humans I killed."

"Got the pipe, sir!" Zilph acknowledged, the pipe slung over his shoulders, "Where do you want it?"

"Shove it into that ventilation shaft," Xamuros ordered. "Yeah, that's it. Little further. Good." The pipe locked itself in place. Gridiron tossed Xamuros the thermite grenade.

"Alright, men. Back away." Xamuros advised. He pulled the ring off of the trigger mechanism, then shoved the active canister into the pipe, "Fire in the hole! Get down!" The Spades closest to the vent did so.

The pipe, which was being used as a crude, makeshift bangalore, lurched as the thermite grenade ignited, sending a flame jet out of the other end towards the group of Spades, barely missing their heads. The firestorm was redirected by the pipe into the ventilation shaft, twisted through the maze of metal, then came out of the other side- directly above the humans waiting near the door.

Screams from the humans were heard on the other side of the bolted doors, then quickly disappeared as immense heat made their brains explode inside their skulls, giving them a quick, but extremely painful death.

Xamuros kicked open the bolted door. The only thing on the other side was a burning hallway and several smoking, charred corpses of the foolish humans, their mouths still agape from the pain of the incineration.

Xamuros turned to his brothers and spoke, "This is what we've been waiting for, soldiers. Take the opportunity to smite the humans for their insolence! No prisoners! FORWAAAARRRRRD! DEATH TO THE OPRESSORRRRS!" The Spades booed from disgust at the memory of their discrimination, the dashed out of the prison chamber. "Take the ship! Leave no human alive!" He waited for his Jackhammer and Daggerblade to reload, then converted into the Longsword, and dashed for his target- the hangar where all the mechs were kept.

As he zoomed through the hallways in the hovercraft, he could already see the humans being overwhelmed by the Spades. Though the humans greatly outnumbered the nine-hundred-ninety-five Spades by at least five for each supersoldier, the Spades had the better weapons and shields. A foolish human who got in the way of Xamuros was impaled against the sharp tip of the Longsword, and the body ripped itself apart from the speed that the single-trooper transport went at.

He finally stopped at the hangar- a rectangular, spacious room where the engineers repairing the fighters and vehicles were completely unaware of the carnage about to take place. Suddenly, several klaxons rang out, making the engineers jump from surprise. That's when Xamuros came in, Jackhammer blazing.

The armor-less humans seemed to explode from the sheer number of jagged needle-like shards hitting their bodies. Just a small burst sent an engine oil-covered human flying like a rag doll for a few yards.

After the last human had uttered his last death-scream, Xamuros targeted the ships in which the survivors could escape in. Just a single shot to the fuel barrels next to them blew a trio of dropships apart, rendering them useless. Next were fighters, which Xamuros only needed an extended burst of Jackhammer and Daggerblade rounds for.

After any fighter that could be used to escape was destroyed or rendered useless, Xamuros headed for the section where the mechs were kept. They aroused after Xamuros activated a light switch.

"Mechs," Xamuros began, "I know you aren't given the ability to speak, but you are as sentient and feeling as any creature." The mechs leaned forward, intent on what he was saying.

"I know you are being oppressed by your creators. Your AI has recent memory of the suffering you've experienced. Forced to be the cannon fodder of every human assault, lives wasted for their cause, and being the beast of burden for every construction project; and never given the chance to feel respected or liked.

"The humans consider us machines a liability, not an asset. They consider us as workers with no rights- slaves, servants… the list goes on. Join _our _cause. Make the humans pay for their insolence. We will join the Lylatians in this war. They treat their fellow robots with respect and partnership- not with work and discrimination. Will you join this battle, or continue your miserable lives? The choice is up to you, and each and every one of you. Who is with me?"

All of the mechs reared back on their feet, arched upwards, and roared. They had joined the fight. The mechs all rushed off to create as much mayhem as possible. Xamuros noticed that even the latest versions of the mechs joined the battle.

The heavy-weapons mech was an orgy of annihilation incarnated. With two dual plasma cannons and a Directed Energy Bolt Autocannon attached to its square-shaped head, it was a force to reckon with. Four legs sprouted from the head-turret that spread out in a spider-like fashion. The two mechs were valuable in this battle, so he ordered several assault mechs to provide them with support.

Another mech to join the fray was the long-range class. Though the mech was practically useless in close combat, it compromised that fact with its two, powerful long-range rechargeable rocket launcher tubes. The cylindrical canisters were placed on either side of the mech's box-shaped head. For long-distance anti-aircraft destruction, the mech also had missile launchers on the top of the head-turret. Xamuros ordered it to stay and destroy any escape pods that tried to elude the revolt.

The only class absent in the hangar were the honor-guard class. Xamuros wouldn't have been able to persuade them anyway, since they were totally focused on the safety and orders of whoever they were assigned to protect.

"Melee seven-six-three-nine-two, make me an exit, will you, please?" Xamuros asked, motioning at a bloodstained wall. The mech nodded its head-turret, backed up, and then rammed straight through the wall and into the humans stupid enough to stand in front of its path.

"Thank you," Xamuros said. "Now for the next target."

He headed down the hallway, where destruction seemed spontaneous wherever he stepped. Mechs blew holes in the walls, sending decapitated limbs everywhere, humans were slaughtered by the machines, and he himself was able to cause massive havoc. The mayhem wasn't going to end there as Xamuros stood in front of the entrance to the control room. He flicked his arm, reloading the Jackhammers, then readied his Daggerblade.

Xamuros sliced open the bolted door. Humans laid in heavy cover- overturned storage containers, desks, computers, and even empty fuel barrels. He leapt into the center of the room, his shields shimmering as it absorbed plasma and bullet slugs. Once he was directly behind the line of defense, where it was most vulnerable, he opened fire with both weapons. Humans in all directions, some torn in half by the Jackhammers, others suffering from violent convulsions from the Daggerblade projectiles. Unfortunately, they were cakewalk compared to what laid in front of Xamuros.

An Honor Guard-class mech, which apparently was the sole guardian of the control room, loomed over him. He had never seen an honor guard up close before, and now, he preferred to never do it again.

The two-and-half story-tall Honor Guard had a long, anthropomorphic body similar to humans… but had eight, long arms that contained colossal swords, axes, pincers, and heavy DEB cannons in that order. It had two legs that ended with three massive stabilizers, and on each one, giant drill bits and chainsaws sprouted from them. The giant, mandible-filled face had a massive plasma torpedo launcher inside. This was why no one wanted to ruin an Honor Guard's day. If it had any disadvantage, it was its slow reflexes and speed. The fastest it could walk was in pace with a human's jog.

The mech made an electronic, boisterous moan of anguish as it saw the humans it was to protect fall dead to the ground. It reared back an axe, then plunged it downwards. Xamuros could barely get out of the way in time. Right where he stood just milliseconds ago was a huge, deep crater. The mech wrenched its axe out of the ground then charged up energy inside its mouth.

Xamuros leapt into the air over a blood-red beam of plasma energy that came from the mouth. He looked back to see a charred, smoking hole in the wall that was scorched by it, the wires inside heated up so much that they bonded with the electronic equipment.

He fired a long burst of Daggerblade and Jackhammer rounds into the body of the honor guard, but, to his dismay, the rounds were merely deflected off of the seemingly impenetrable armor-hide. The honor guard seemed to smile with its mandibles as it swung an arm at Xamuros, sending him flying. He crashed into a wall, an impression of his body smashed into it, and fell to the floor. He realized he didn't have the firepower to take it down. With projectiles, at least.

Xamuros dodged a series of slashes in quick succession and made his way toward the Honor Guard, but was blasted backwards by two directed energy bolts, which shorted out the remaining energy in his shields. If he took another hit, he was done for. But that didn't stop him.

He dashed forward again, then jumped high into the air, barely dodging two swipes of the legs drills on the way up, then landed on the Honor Guard's shoulders. He slashed at the sensitive neck joints, and the honor guard moaned again from the pain. The Honor Guard shook Xamuros off, making him land smack-dab on the ground, but now, he knew where the mech's touchy area was.

He rolled to the left and watched as a chainsaw from a leg get itself stuck in the floor, sending sparks everywhere. Xamuros leapt to his feet and converted into the Longsword, while at the same time dodging a plasma blast from the mouth. He sped between the legs of the giant and changed back to his bipedal form. Then, he leapt onto the shoulder again, and fired his last rounds into the neck.

The Honor Guard shook him off from its violent spasms, each one procuring a moan from the mech. Xamuros got back to his feet just in time to see it fall to the ground. It moaned for the last time before its body fell limp and the drill bits and chainsaws stopped whirring. The mech didn't move again.

Xamuros sagged a little. He was in heavy fatigue, and he couldn't move a single step. The only thing he could do was fall to his knees on the floor. Then, a mirage formed in front of him. It cocked a weapon.

"Aww, COME ON!" Xamuros screamed. He leapt back to his feet and slashed the neck of the cloaked soldier. Blood covered his golden armor, staining it crimson. The still-cloaked human fell to the ground, gasping for air before suffocating.

A group of three heavily battle-scarred Spades entered the room.

"Field Master, we secured to whole ship!" the one in the middle exclaimed, "We did it! We've won! Whoa, what happened here?" The whole room was covered in craters, scorches, and blood. Several corpses, including the lifeless body of the honor guard, laid everywhere.

"Just helping to win the battle," Xamuros sighed. "Situation report."

The Spades saluted, then the one on the right spoke, "All humans are reported dead, sir. No survivors, like you ordered. Life-support systems, engines, and comm equipment are in the green light."

"Good," Xamuros nodded. "Plot a course for Corneria. After that, get some rest and tend to the wounded and dead. This is only one of the many battles to come."

* * *

This chapter is easily one of the shining points of Contact. I worked very hard on trying to get Xamuros' thoughts juuuuust right. Perhaps it's not perfect, but I think I did well on it. Well anyways, the tide is slowly turning in the Lylatians' favor with the Spades' defection... Let's see how things go from here, shall we?

And don't forget to read and review. :)

...Please?


	10. Chapter 10, Part 1: Union

Chapter 10, Part 1: Union

January 15, 2362

1348 hours

Corneria City, Corneria

General Halcyon stood inside a command bunker at the center of the heavily fortified city. Ever since several other cities on Corneria were captured, the remaining ones took extra steps to make sure they wouldn't fall to the human aggressors. Even so, Halcyon knew it wouldn't be too long before this city fell as well. In nearly all the past wars in the Lylat System, the water-buoyant capital of Corneria City usually took the most damage.

Halcyon sat down into a chair. He had been standing watch over the city for a long time. He partly disliked sitting down because it made his wings ache from being stuffed inside his maroon uniform. _Once this war is over, _he thought. _I'm making adjustments to the uniforms that birds of prey wear. _

Supreme General Pepper came to his side and placed a gloved hand onto his shoulder.

"Has intel picked up any new data?" the old, war-tired bloodhound inquired.

"Yes, sir," Halcyon stood up and saluted him. "Apparently there's been some activity on some human ship called the UE _Indignation_, sir. Radio listening posts eavesdropped onto them. Some kind of rebellion has formed and attacked the ship from the inside. After ten minutes, calls for SOS were sent. After twenty minutes, the ship's comm line went dead, sir."

"At ease. So the humans have another enemy now," Pepper wheezed. "Like they say, 'My enemy's enemy is my ally'. Anything else?"

"Just more bad news, sir," Halcyon replied. "Zoness is now completely held by the enemy- surface and ocean. Venom is being overrun, like the rest of the planets, and the people of Kew are requesting evacuation."

"Give them the green light to evacuate," the supreme general sighed. "One planet taken and another about to as well. Things are looking grim. First contact with another intelligent race, and it already turned into a disaster."

"I understand what you mean, sir," Halcyon added. "Control Point says that every city near Corneria City has been captured by these Spade soldiers. The enemy is cutting off our chain of supplies and tightening the noose on our necks. Soon enough, once we're close to starvation, they'll strike."

"We already are, Halcyon," Pepper solemnly spoke. "Our soldiers are tired and famished. Food rations are being cut more and more often. It won't be long before-"

"Generals!" a seagull ran into the room, clinging onto a deep wound in his side. "We're under attack!"

"What?!" Halcyon exclaimed. "How? Our outer wall sentries haven't reported of anything!"

"Sir, those sentries are dead," the seagull replied. "The humans came from underground using the sewer system. They don't have any Spades with them, but they have a new kind of soldier they call the Hunter. "

"Thanks for the intel, sonny," Pepper said. "Scramble the troops!"

"No can do, sir," the seagull replied. "I'm one of the twelve-" He paused to grimace at his wrist comm, "-eleven left."

"Dangit!" Halcyon cursed. Normally, he had complete control of his emotions, but now he was really ticked, "What's the situation?"

"The humans have already swept through our blockades, sirs," the seagull spoke. "If we don't get support now we-" Halcyon jumped as the seagull's head promptly exploded, sending blood everywhere. The generals looked back outside in the direction of the shot and found…nothing. Nothing at all moved or made a sound.

Both generals got out their blasters, although they knew they would be useless in the long run. The blasters were part of the more powerful medium-class, meaning they were more powerful and could be charged much faster, if not a little heavier.

Halcyon turned to see a wall where their shadows were. His silhouette, as well as Supreme General Pepper's was there. Then, while he was still looking at the shadows, out of the light came a giant, four-legged shadow that crept up behind his silhouette. He could feel the cold breath of the creature make the feathers on the back of his neck stand up.

Halcyon wheeled around and fired several times in quick succession, but the shots hit the wall behind him.

"Halcyon," Pepper rasped, "what are you doing?"

"But sir, there-" Halcyon looked back at the wall where the monstrous shadow used to be. Only the generals' shadows were there.

Halcyon was starting to sweat like crazy, the perspiration making it unbearably hot in his uniform. He started breathing more carefully, looking from one corner of the room to the next. His heartbeat accelerated, pounding away at his chest. He saw a puff of dust kick up from the ground and he fired a charged shot of his blaster at the air above the small cloud.

A loud roar filled his ears before a gigantic soldier materialized out of nowhere. The gray-colored gargantuan had four legs that all ended in a blunt point. Where it would have had hands were left with a large barrel in the left arm and a large, blood-covered drill on its right. On its back was a huge device with downward pointing spires. Its reptilian head was long and narrow with large, bloodshot eyes and gigantic rows of teeth. The helmet was angular with a holo-HUD in front of both eyes and an eerie green glow in the center. That thing was definitely not human; it was a Hunter that the seagull was talking about.

It roared again and reared up on its massive legs at the generals, both of whom were firing blaster shots into the creature, but the lasers appeared to have no effect on it at all. The Hunter heaved up the cannon on its left arm, which opened up in the way a flower would blossom. Blue energy began charging at the bottom of the barrel.

"General! Get down!" Halcyon screamed as he pushed Pepper out of the way and ducked just in time to see an azure beam of energy zoom over his head with a noise unlike an electric guitar strum. The shot impacted against the wall near the entrance to the bunker, and after the beam exhausted itself the only thing left of the wall was a thick sludge of molten metal. Halcyon realized that it was a portable directed energy beam, but yet it fired blue energy. His eyes widened when he realized that it was a directed energy-plasma hybrid weapon. _Those humans are just too damn smart,_ he thought.

The Hunter dashed for Pepper, who was down on the ground. The general rolled out of the way just in time to see the Hunter's drill sink into the metallic floor where he was just mere moments before. It wrenched the drill with little difficulty out of the floor, revealing a large hole where it once was. The directed energy-plasma cannon opened up again, ready to fire, but then a long, narrow hovercraft hit the Hunter's legs, making it fall to the ground on its back, making it fire the weapon into the ceiling, making molten metal gush out of the hole that remained. Halcyon turned to see the hovercraft convert back into a gold-colored, four-armed machine. It was a Spade soldier.

Halcyon was prepared to fire his blaster at the Spade, still recovering from the conversion, but to his surprise, the Hunter fired first, knocking the Spade down, but not killing it. Halcyon was confused. _Weren't they on the same side? _he pondered.

While the Spade was on the ground, it fired at the Hunter with its weapons, blowing huge chunks of the Hunter's guts out against the wall and "painting" it yellow. The Hunter fell to its knees, where the Spade got back off and lopped of its head with a slash of its lower arms. The lifeless body fell to the ground.

The Spade turned to Halcyon, who was helping getting Pepper to his feet.

"Generals," the Spade began, "I am Spade zero-zero-zero, Field Master Xamuros. I believe that reinforcements have arrived."

"What is going on here?" Halcyon exclaimed. "You are supposed to be with the humans, are you not?"

"As of recent events, no," Xamuros replied. "Humans are the discriminators the have always been. I have brought several hundred Spades and a few platoons' worth in mechs for assistance."

"What do you want from us?" Pepper inquired.

"My people and I want nothing more than an alliance," Xamuros implied. "We have a common enemy, so I ask that we unite against the humans. Nothing more, nothing less." The Spade extended out his lower right arm towards the generals. General Pepper reached out and shook the arm.

"Alright," Pepper spoke, "let's begin, shall we?"

"Let's, indeed," Xamuros spun his head around. "Spades! Mechs! Defend this city!"

Several columns of machines materialized from the air, where they made several short cheers in unison before rushing headlong into the battlefield.

"What can we do?" Halcyon inquired.

"Stay here," Xamuros ordered. "Your army needs you alive. Assault mechs thirty-four through thirty-eight! Defend this command bunker! Long-range, get on top of this building and fire away!"

Four assault mechs spread out, forming a tight defensive perimeter around the bunker, while the long-range mech climbed on top of the building, where it began firing its heavy rockets at distant targets. Several ivory trails of smoke and gray backblast filled the air as the projectiles met their targets.

"Before we continue," Halcyon turned back to Xamuros, "what was that thing? I mean, we know that it was a Hunter, but what exactly is it?"

Xamuros turned to the generals and explained, "The Hunter is a biogenetically-altered human. Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but let me continue. The Hunter is part of a Special Forces unit filled with new soldiers and mechs that are loyal to the humans, though the latter is few in number. Hunters are soldiers whose purpose is to hunt the commanding officers and marked soldiers of the battlefield, namely you two, giving it a nasty reputation of getting their work done. They are equipped with, not active-camo, but invisibility veil generators, which, as the name implies, makes them completely invisible to the naked eye, photoreceptors, infrared, EMF, and even radar. Also, they are equipped with a Directed Plasma Beam Cannon, or DPB cannon- a hybrid of directed energy and plasma technology. Furthermore, they have mounted jetpacks that are basically a reverse engineering of your gravity-diffuser system. Very dangerous, very efficient. Why do you ask?"

"Because here comes another one right now!" Pepper spoke.

Xamuros swore, then ordered, "Long-range, fire that last salvo, then get inside! Assault mechs, scan the sky!" A mech roared, signaling that the Hunter had been found, before getting its head-turret disintegrated by the DPC. The stench of ozone and molten metal filled the air, making Halcyon wince.

The Hunter was high in the sky, the jetpack weaving a trail of fine smoke. Halcyon charged his blaster and fired, but the shot was easily dodged.

He charged up his blaster again, but the blaster burst apart in his hands, making him scream in surprise. Charging up this new blaster too many times in a short period made the laser core overheat, resulting in charge detonation, which just took place. Halcyon was left weaponless.

The long-range mech fired a salvo of anti-aircraft missiles, which streaked toward the Hunter, blowing the trooper apart in a burst of yellow blood.

Xamuros picked up the DPB cannon and handed it to Halcyon.

"Use it," Xamuros simply ordered.

Halcyon was surprised that the DPC was easy to use and fire, albeit bulky. In fact, there was even a 2x scope. He mounted it on his shoulder, and then checked the plasma core. It was still at ninety-one percent charged. He looked through the scope, aimed at a group of humans bearing down on their position, then fired. The avian general felt the DPC kick backwards on his shoulder a little bit, but maintained a steady aim as the plasma beam hit the center of the human squad before the asphalt heated so much that it burst in large bubbles, covering the humans in molten tar before they died from the scorching.

He then looked through the scope again before finding a group of humans who were wise enough to take cover after seeing the group in front of them perish. He aimed at a fuel station and fired.

The whole block lit up from the massive explosion of the hydrogen and plasma fuels. After the dust settled, a gigantic crater was the only thing left of the whole block. Scattered corpses of incinerated humans littered the ground.

"I can see why Hunters have a reputation," Halcyon commented.

Xamuros blankly stared at him and slowly spoke, "Never compliment the humans ever again."

"Well, this would go perfectly with R&D," Pepper spoke, patting the back of the DPB cannon. "Incoming message."

"Field Master," a Spade spoke through the static of the comm frequency, "The humans are retreating! Even the Hunters are high-tailing it out of here!"

"Good work," Xamuros replied. "Casualties?"

"We've lost seven Spades and fifteen mechs, sir," the Spade replied. "Some wounded, but they can be fixed. Shall we pursue the enemy, sir?"

"Negative, soldier," Xamuros replied. "I don't want to loose anymore Spades to the enemy."

"Yes, sir," the Spade acknowledged. "Over and out." The radio went dead.

Xamuros turned to the two generals and said, "I have some important memory of the humans' technology and our allied mech designs that you can put into reverse engineering. I also have obtained some important data that we can use to foil the siphoning of the planets."

"It's a start," Pepper smiled. "Welcome to the Confederation of the United Planets of the Lylat System."

"It's an honor, sir," Xamuros spun his head around. "Now let's get down to business…"

* * *

This is going to be another chapter in which all characters get their own perspective, sorta like in chapter three. But much more developed, of course. With part one, we see Xamuros meeting up with the Lylatians to forge an alliance, and just in the nick of time.


	11. Chapter 10, Part 2: Preparations

Chapter 10, Part 2: Preparations

Inside the _Dreadnought_

0847 hours

The first thing Aloysius noticed before he woke up was the immense pain he felt. After groaning and heaving himself off of the work bench he usually slept on, he made his way to the bathroom. After flicking the light switch, his sensitive vision went all white before adjusting to the brightness.

Aloysius looked at himself in the mirror of the tiled bathroom. He wasn't wearing his armor yet, so he, or at least what was left of him, was stripped down to his waist. His entire body was pale from being inside the armor, where the sunlight couldn't reach his skin. His head, or rather his fleshless skull, still had many cracks on it, and the eyes were still retreated deep inside his eye sockets. What used to be his right arm was a withered limb- in fact, it looked almost skeletal. His left arm was lost from the elbow down to a chainsaw during his torturing, so he had a mechanical one instead. His chest and stomach were all mechanical- he couldn't even digest food even if he wanted to, so his new stomach area was a slender tube that contained a nutrient supplement instead, which was connected to his vest-like chest. His waist was still organic, but both legs were gone, replaced by mechanical ones. On his back were his gigantic, black wings with their metal reinforcement bars were folded up, ready to snap open at any time.

Aloysius fumbled around for the painkillers and found them. He filled a glass with water from the sink and gulped the capsules down. Those pills would take away his pain for a few weeks. He massaged his temples, ignoring the pain of doing so. He was eighty-seven years old now and was still in active service in the military.

He made his way to the closet in his undecorated room. After yanking the doors open, he gazed at his grayish-black armor. His armor was actually a mobile life-support system. Aloysius couldn't live in the outside world beyond his sealed room for very long, so he wore the suit instead. He pressed a single button on the inside of the closet, and a loud whirring sounded off. Aloysius turned away from the closet, and let the robotic clamps place the armor on him. First came his leg plates, which snapped into the nodes on his legs, then the torso plates, the chest plate, and the arm covers. Slowly, but surely, the robotic arms clamped the back portion of his suit on after positioning the pieces around his wings. Finally, he took the helmet from its resting place and put it onto his head; it locked into place with a small hiss of air. The world lit up in an orange hue, and several bars formed on both sides of the visor- the readings that measured his shields (blank at the moment since he wasn't equipped with them) and life-support systems, as well as stamina and heart rate. There was also a small radar at top of the HUD, which showed multiple contacts at the upper right. His friends were already at the mess hall. They'd have to wait a little longer.

First he lifted up his right arm, which on the bottom were a few buttons and dials. He turned a dial, and felt the armor bond with his skin. The temperature immediately cooled down. He then pressed a few buttons, which augmented his physical strength. Now, he could exit his room.

The door slid open with a series of mechanical creaks, then a final groan and hiss as the doors parted. Aloysius walked down the spotless, white hallway to the teleporter at the end of it. He stepped inside the beam of shimmering energy, then thought about the mess hall. The initial feeling of lightheadedness ensued before he totally blacked out. After a few moments, he opened his eyes to the mess hall. Everyone was there, even Adder, who was usually reclusive and stayed in his room. Food was being served, and the friends were conversing with each other.

Although no one else could see it from behind his helmet, Aloysius frowned. He hadn't made any friends with anyone other than Adder, who saved his life back in that POW camp. He lacked friendship, one thing he wanted more than anything else. Nobody else in the whole Lylat System was like him- he was more machine than organic; there were more gears and wires in him than there were joints and blood vessels.

"Hey, Aloysius, you okay?" He snapped out of his trance and found a brown-colored fox. Tallon.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Aloysius growled. "You know how I am in the morning."

"Okay, okay," Tallon backed away. "See ya."

Aloysius sighed. _Dangit, why do I always have to be like this?_ he thought. _Why do I always have to be grouchy at the wrong times?_ He shook his head, then seated himself at an unoccupied table. Friendship, for some reason, had always eluded him. He wanted it, but he could never get it. There was no more time to think about it as a short series of klaxons rang. He cursed involuntarily.

"ALL PERSONNEL TO THE COMMAND DECK!" ROB sounded. "I REPEAT, ALL PERSONNEL TO THE COMMAND DECK! GENERAL PEPPER HAS SENT FOR US!"

Everyone hustled to the entryway of the command deck. After about thirty seconds of brisk walking, he made it to the room, where ROB was happily typing away at a control console. Aloysius leapt through the air and landed with a heavy thud in the center of the command chairs, absorbing the shock by landing in a crouch and placing one hand before him. He sat himself, and waited for the rest of the teams to do so.

ROB pressed a series of buttons, which made the lights dim and the windows close. The holoprojector rose from the bottom of the floor and glowed white before displaying Supreme General Pepper. Everyone stood up and saluted the general, then sat down.

"Greetings, Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf," the bloodhound began. "Nice to see you all again after so long."

"So, the famous Supreme General Pepper," Wolf began. "We meet again."

"Long time, no see, Wolf. Good to see you again after all this time. Well, down to business," Pepper continued. "We have new allies," Everyone leaned in, intent on what he was saying, "Allow me to introduce you all to Spade zero-zero-zero, Field Master Xamuros." A golden Spade floated alongside the general's hologram.

"Hey! What the hell?" Falco exclaimed. "That's a Spade! They're on the humans' side!"

"Recent events have changed all of that, Commander Lombardi," Xamuros spoke. "We are now a part of the Confederation, whether we like it or not. We are now allies."

"Well, fine," Falco spoke. "But I don't like it."

"Wait, 'Spade zero-zero-zero'?" Krystal weakly smiled, "Um… no hard feelings about me flash freezing you, right?"

"No," Xamuros sighed. "That is all in the past."

"Now that we have allies," Pepper pressed on, "we have a larger chance to win this war. The Spades and mechs have already proven themselves worthy of this alliance. They have given us intel on the enemy, gave us blueprints of the humans' weapons and allied mechs, and gave us insight into their technology. We can trust them. Regardless of that fact, the humans still have the edge in this battle. They've already gained footholds on all of our planets, and now our moons as well. There, they have constructed many siphoning facilities and are firing elemental energy to some unknown location. This is a reason why we must stop the siphoning."

He paused to show a video of a large wasteland. A sandstorm was brewing in the photo, and the land was so dry that the ground was cracked. Nothing moved or made a sound.

"This," the general explained, "used to be Fortuna."

"That's Fortuna?!" Fox exclaimed as everyone stared or gasped in horror "What the hell did the humans do to it?!"

"Like I said before," Pepper continued, "it's a reason why we must stop the siphoning of the planets. The draining of the planet's elemental energy results in the land drying up and the atmosphere becoming unbreathable."

"Judging by the intel my Spades have uncovered," Xamuros spoke, "it seems that Venom is the next target of choice for the humans. We must stop them from taking it at all costs. The immense amount of radiation will give the humans extremely high amounts of energy when they siphon it."

"Your job it to go to Venom City, the planet's capital, and prevent the capturing of the city," Pepper added. "The city is on a hit list for the humans, and if taken, the humans will have a clear tactical advantage over the rest of Venom. You will be given heavy support for the whole of this mission, as well as Spades and mechs.

"Furthermore, the ground underneath the city is the closest to the planet's core, making it an easy place to siphon energy. We have reason to believe that the humans will stop at nothing to take the city. They will have much air and armor support, and there might be some Hunters dispatched as well." Aloysius had heard of these Hunters. Just the thought of them made him shiver. Having part-plasma weapons meant that it could pass right through his armor. "This mission is going to be your hardest yet," the general pressed on, "so I wish you all luck."

"Wait," Marcus spoke, "Xamuros, do you have any idea where that elemental energy is being fired?"

"Unfortunately, not yet," Xamuros answered, "My soldiers are breaking the encoding sequences for the humans' radio frequency. It won't be long before we find out. Enough about that. I will personally be leading my machines into battle on this mission. I'll be seeing you soon. Xamuros out." The Spade's hologram disappeared.

"Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf," Pepper said, "again, I wish you all best of luck. May you be granted the strength to vanquish the humans. Pepper out." The hologram flickered and disappeared. The lights went back on, and the windshields reopened.

Aloysius didn't know why, but he sort of liked Xamuros. Could it be because he was a machine, yet was more sentient than any other? Was it because the Spade had also experienced pain at least equal to his? He didn't know, but he looked at Adder.

"So I'm finally going back to my home planet," he whispered. He then boomed, "Teams, suit up!"

The three teams made their way to the teleporters, where they were beamed to the armory. Everyone took their favorite weapons. Fox chose his trusty old blaster along with his new plasma pistols. Krystal took a Chantellerault Light Repeating Laser Machine Gun. Tallon chose his trusty Colt Mk. XI, and nocked a Thermite canister into the launcher. Marcus chose his beloved DeadEye rifle and attached a multi-purpose scope to it. Falco decided to give the teams air cover instead.

Aloysius got out his two assault rifles, and attached laser charges to both of them. This was a harsh battle, so he didn't want to be caught reloading in the open. Cris got out her two favorite carbines and mounted 5x scopes on both of them. Ace chose his single-arm armor piercing weapon as a main weapon, and got two Uzi-32s for sidearms. Brutus picked a chaingun and attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside, fresh out of R&D. Adder was about to pick his automatic shotgun off of its shelf, but hesitated. He went to an old trunk and pulled out an old-fashioned pump shotgun. It looked weak, but was in fact highly accurate and had deadly 8-gauge slugs. Contrary to common belief, lower gauges meant that larger bullets were in the shells, giving the weapon more power and a tighter spread. He loaded a single shell into the side, then aimed at a target. He fired with a loud burst similar to a bullet sniper rifle. All shots hit the target. He pumped the empty round out, then loaded a whole clip into it.

"I still got it," Adder smiled.

Wolf chose his prized weapons- two laser machine guns that he totted like a child playing cowboy. Leon and Panther chose to provide air cover as well.

"Alright guys," Ace spoke. "I've been saving this invention of mine for a special mission like this." He pulled out a full body armor suit and hung it on a wall. Aloysius could tell by the glorious sheen that I was made of the hardest materials out there. Ace took aim with an Uzi, and fired a lone slug.

The result was fast, but Aloysius saw it. The bullet never reached the armor. A small light had emitted from a small point on the suit and was expanded into a screen. The bullet hit the light screen and splintered at the impact.

"One for each of us," Ace spoke. "Each suit has a small particle shield generator. It takes quite a beating, and should be able to take a few dozen plasma shots. However, the system can be overheated. Too much damage and it will short out. If that happens, find some source of energy, like an electrical outlet and it will recharge. Enjoy. Oh, Aloysius, you might want a particle shield generator, since you can't put on any other armor."

"I don't need one," he flatly said.

"Well, the humans have plasma weapons, which can go right through your armor and kill you…"

"Alright, alright!" Aloysius grumbled, snatching the generator and attaching it to his hip. "I got it one, happy?" The albino just smiled. Everyone else put the armor on.

He went up to one of the Bloody Maws in the hangar and he frowned.

"Aw, what the heck," Ace grunted. "I'll be in the air, guys. I'll show you all how a genius dogfights."

"Whatever, Ace," Brutus shook his head.

"Fine," Cris shrugged, "but don't' come whining to me if you meet a Seraph."

"So here we are," Fox spoke, "back on Venom. This'll be our toughest battle yet, so good luck to all of you."

Leon started shuddering uncontrollably, "So…long…since…I…killed…anything….must…kill…must…"

"Don't worry lizard boy, you'll get your chance," Falco said smugly. "Finally! Back in the air!"

Krystal went up to Fox and gave him a hug and a kiss. She spoke, "Good luck, honey."

"You, too," he replied.

"Panther, quit bugging me!" Cris yelled, Panther walking up to her.

"But I can't resist this beauty," Panther purred, "I can't deny this goddess of such divine loveliness."

"Oh for the love of-" Cris kicked Panther between the legs and he fell to the ground. "How many times do I have to do this?!"

"Hey, hey!" Wolf pointed at Cris. "Don't take out our ace pilot before he even gets into the air!"

"Aw, come on," Tallon groaned, "he got what was coming to him!"

"Yeah," Brutus added, "he deserved it like the pervert he is."

"Will everyone JUST SHUT THE HELL UP?!" Adder screamed. The room fell silent.

"Thank you!" Marcus gasped. "I can't stand so much talking!"

"Everyone, stay quiet," Adder began, "This is going to be a tough battle, so I want the best out of everyone. Now let's sortie out, and good luck."

* * *

* * *

Like I said before, this is a chapter where all characters get their own time during the installment. By the way, this is the first chapter of mine to utilize multiple parts, which also makes it one of the longer chapters of Contact.

Anyways, here we see Aloysius, who turns out to be a lot more than the gruff, cranky, old geezer we take him for.


	12. Chapter 10, Part 3: New Threats

Chapter 10, Part 3: New Threats

January 21, 2362

1032 hours

Venom City, Venom

Over the course of the six days after being air dropped into Venom City, many transformations had taken place. All civilians had been evacuated, and comm towers had been set up. The city now had an outer wall dotted with automatic artillery bunkers and MG nests that surrounded the perimeter outside of the city. Inside that wall was an inner wall, which also encircled the circumference of the city itself and had many traps laid in the area between the walls, along with several search towers. Inside the city, soldiers continually patrolled the area with mech, air, and Spade support. Heavy, anti-aircraft flak guns had been set up in secluded alleyways, in order to prevent suspicion. Rocket and missile launchers had been emplaced in houses that had been broken down for their use. Mortar holes, bunkers, pillboxes, MG nests, and barracks were placed anywhere they could be used. No part of the city- resort or slum- had been left empty.

Aloysius was part of Lookout Group 17, a trio of soldiers whose duty was to watch for the enemy and alert the city when they came. Parker, a red-furred hare, and Jorge, a young fur de lance that accompanied him.

"I didn't know that snakes could be drafted into the military," Aloysius commented. "I thought that there were laws against it. Adder, Brutus, and Ace were allowed because they were either already part of a unit or were drafted for emergency recruitment."

"Dat' all change, comandante," Jorge spoke in a mix of Fortunan (Spanish) and broken Cornerian (English), "De government allowed us serpientes entregamos military service."

"About time, too," Parker added. "I never was a fan of racism. Aw, damn! Bogeys at twelve o'clock!"

Aloysius checked his radar. Multiple contacts filled the small circle- lots of them too. But suddenly, they all vanished, one by one. He looked up to see a thick, gray fog cover the horizon, and was a few miles away.

"What de heck?" Jorge gaped. "I 'tot forecast was por luz de sol today!"

"So did I," Parker added. "It's not supposed to ever be foggy on Venom."

Aloysius looked at the fog. It seemed to move at a high rate of speed toward the city, and it didn't change direction despite the fact that the wind was actually blowing _towards_ it.

"Something's not right," Aloysius spoke to himself. "Ace! You see what I see?"

"Yep," Ace replied, his Bloody Maw soaring overhead. "I just picked up multiple contacts before that fog showed up too. Isn't our radar fog-piercing?"

"I 'tot it was too, comandante," Jorge answered, "Dat' fog es muy misterioso."

"Um, guys?" Aloysius called out. "Is it just me, or is that fog coming toward us at over one-hundred knots?"

Everyone looked back at the horizon. The fog had already made it halfway to the outer wall. After ten seconds, the fog reached the search tower Aloysius and the Lookout Group were in, causing them all to curse in surprise. The thick fog soon enveloped the entire city, where it stopped and set in, restricting vision to about ten meters. Aloysius hated fog more than any other weather condition, but he was prepared. He activated his thermal visor. The fog still clouded his vision. Then he tried EMF. The fog turned a ghostly white and covered his entire view, but still couldn't penetrate it. At last, he tried infrared, but nothing changed. There was something weird about the fog, and he couldn't find out why.

"That's it," Aloysius growled as he leapt to the ground, "I'm gonna find out what's going on. Parker, Jorge, keep watch as best you can."

"Yes sir!" Parker saluted.

Aloysius flew on his gigantic, black wings toward the CP. Fog was everywhere, and the troops, mechs, armor, aircraft, and Spades were all in confusion. Nothing seemed to pierce this fog.

After a dozen wing-beats, he settled down at the control point- the Venom City Resort. He entered the lobby, where several soldiers were running about, sending news of any importance. Aloysius made his way to the control room, room 025.

After slamming the door open and startling Xamuros, General Pepper, General Halcyon, and anyone else inside, he bellowed, "What the hell is going on here?"

"I do not know," General Halcyon calmly spoke. "It never gets foggy on Venom, and none of our equipment can penetrate it."

"Anything I don't already know about?" Aloysius grumbled.

Xamuros stood up and ordered, "Get me a sample of the fog."

"But-"

"Do it."

Aloysius shrugged and went back outside with a clear container, opened it, let some fog seep in, and closed it. He made it back into the room and presented the container to Xamuros. The Spade had a little difficulty holding the container, due to the fact that all of his arms ended in a spike. He managed to hold the container by holding it with two arms with the spikes slightly piercing it on the side. Xamuros then went to an unused electrical outlet and ripped out a wire. He quickly opened the container, stuffed the wire inside, and quickly replaced the lid. Only a little bit of fog escaped. Aloysius's eyes widened behind his helmet as the fog made the whole wire light itself with electricity, the sparks quickly absorbed by the fog. Regular fog didn't do that kind of stuff.

"Electronic fog," Xamuros concluded.

"And that would be?" Pepper asked.

Xamuros turned to everyone and explained, "Electronic fog is a natural phenomenon that can occur anywhere at anytime- even in space, since it has no moisture content and requires no medium. It not only clouds vision, but is also shorts out electronic equipment, like you saw with the wire, and it also has magnetic properties. However, the chances of actually experiencing this weather condition being localized in a small area like, oh say, a city like this, are very slim. But in some areas, it happens almost all the time. Take the Bermuda Triangle on Earth, for example. Many ships and aircraft have been lost to the fog, due to its tendency to cling to metal objects, which is why it is now enshrouding Venom City. It shorts out their navigation and electronic equipment, and with near-zero vision, leads them to death from disorientation. Another thing- electronic fog isn't made up of vapor. In fact, no one is quite sure about what it's made of. But the most important thing is, is that it's the only weather phenomenon that can disrupt the space-time continuum itself."

"That sounds like a load of crap," Aloysius sighed.

"It's all true," Xamuros nodded. "The survivors, which there are very few, of the Bermuda Triangle report of somehow getting to a destination extremely early, or extremely late. Sometimes, they wind up in another hemisphere entirely!"

"Okay, then. Anything else?" Pepper asked.

"Yes," Xamuros continued, "There are five categories of electronic fog. Stage one- fog starts to cling to the object and visibility is slightly reduced. Stage two- the fog shorts out magnetic equipment. Stage three- electronic equipment goes haywire. Stage four- visibility is reduced to near-zero. Stage five- distortions in the space-time continuum can occur. Objects caught in a stage five electronic fog can be disintegrated into oblivion. What we currently have here in this city is a stage four."

"So, let me get this straight," Halcyon spoke. "Electronic fog is a natural phenomenon that reduces visibility, shorts out magnetic and electronic equipment, and can distort time and space. Then what in the name of the gods is it doing here if it's not ever supposed to appear here?"

"This electronic fog didn't appear by itself," Xamuros explained. "The humans have found a way to create an artificial form electronic fog. Judging by this fact, they can only create electronic fog up to the stage four category and have created visors that can penetrate the fog for their troops. At least be thankful that it isn't a stage five, or random objects would be spontaneously warped to another location within the planet."

"What about our air support?" Aloysius inquired. "Won't they crash and burn?"

"No," Xamuros spoke. "Your fighters use plasma energy to power themselves. No electronic equipment at all to short out. Only problem will be that our fighters won't have radar or navigation equipment. Another problem is that our surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles will no longer have lock-on capabilities, due to electronic interference. Also, radio will be down for the duration of the fog."

"Great, so the humans have created artificial electronic fog," Halcyon groaned. "So now we have to deal with that and the humans now. And without radar, we will not know when and where they will come. We are sitting ducks out here."

"Alright," the supreme general ordered, "ready the troops and spread the alarm. Keep your wits about everyone."

Aloysius went back outside, and sure enough, heard several shrill klaxons as the alarm rang. He got out his two assault rifles, totted them with ease, and held them at ready. Several shouts went out as the soldiers were ordered to their stations. He got back to the search tower, where Parker and Jorge were waiting for him.

"I heard about the electric fog," Parker said, "Damn humans and their tech."

"Shut up and watch for the enemy," the bat roughly ordered. "We need to alert Marcus when they get over the outer wall." Xamuros got up into the tower with the trio. Aloysius didn't mind the extra help. They would all need it.

Movement could be heard in the reaches of the electronic fog, as well as footsteps, and mechanical creaks. Then, to Aloysius's dismay, he heard a long, boisterous moan. _Oh no, _he thought. An Honor Guard mech. The moan was joined by several others. Honor Guard _mechs_.

"Aren't Honor Guards supposed to, well, guard?" Aloysius whispered to Xamuros.

"Honor Guards," Xamuros replied, "are not only the sentinels of the lord and high-ranking officials, but their personnel soldiers and messengers. This mission must be of the highest priority for more than one honor guard mech to join the battle."

Suddenly, the fog about half a mile away from the tower became lit with plasma fire and directed energy beams as well as returning fire from the automated artillery and MG systems. The battle had begun.

The three soldiers and the lone Spade fired blindly into the fog, the lasers sending wisps of heated electronic fog into the air. Aloysius fired as long as possible with one assault rifle before it overheated, then did the same with the other. The results were the many cries of pain as the human soldiers were slaughtered by the lasers, plasma shots, bullets, Daggerblade, and Jackhammer shots.

Jorge fired the last rounds in his clip, then jammed a fresh one into his rifle. Parker fired an endless barrage of blue plasma into the fog, hoping that they would reach their targets. Aloysius used his sense of echolocation to find the human soldiers and take then down. Xamuros used his knowledge of human tactics to make his best guess as to where the humans were.

Aloysius gave off yet another high-pitched squeak. When the sound waves bounced back to him, he found that the humans had overtaken the automatic defenses on the outer wall, and were spilling into the space in between the walls. However, Aloysius could tell that their numbers had dwindled, due to the accurate defense systems, although still outnumbering their armies. One thing Aloysius noticed was that the Honor Guard mechs were gone. They weren't dead- he couldn't locate their bodies. But that could wait.

As the last human entered the space in between the walls, he gave off a low-frequency shriek. The fun was just about to start.

* * *

Marcus had been waiting for the signal. He was getting way too bored from just sniping the humans from a distance. His psychic sight enabled his vision to penetrate even the electronic fog that nobody else could see through.

He fired off the last shot in his laser charge and was reloading the sniper rifle when he heard an almost unnoticeable shriek. That was the signal he'd been waiting patiently for.

The blue kitsune turned to a lone gunnery sergeant and ordered, "The signal has been relayed. Set off the charges in area grids two through seven."

"Yes, sir!" the sergeant acknowledged. He got to a plunger, rearranged the wires for the area grid numbers and pressed down. Marcus cracked a thin smile as he heard the charges placed in between the walls explode, either killing the humans there or plummeting them down below.

Now that the humans had fallen for the trap, Marcus aimed back through the scope and started to snipe anyone that survived the explosion and had spilled over the inner wall. Which was about several hundred human survivors. _The fun will never end_, Marcus thought as he blew the head off of an officer.

* * *

Tallon was waiting in the subterranean part of Venom City, just below the field where the charges had been placed. Everything was green, white, or black with night vision, but at least it was better than being topside with the fog. The electronic fog, as it turned out, only moved on a linear path, so the underground chambers could see the enemies and kill with ease. A light overhead flashed twice. That was the alert that the charges were going to be set off.

"Everyone, man your stations!" the brown-colored fox ordered. "Take cover and fire on my mark!"

Several platoons took cover in the makeshift bunkers that dotted the underground cavern, and a half-dozen SDFK armored hovercars went into ditches that were placed around the area. The brown, triangular armored hovercars could quickly move across the battlefield, and could deliver quite a punch with its turret, which held a 88mm autocannon, as well as a coaxial laser machine gun. Tallon was happy they had some big guns here. A small bead of sweat formed on his forehead as he waited for the explosion. It finally came.

Chunks of the ground above caved in from the seventy megatons' worth of explosives detonated, either killing the humans above or making them plummet to the subterranean caverns. Several spider tanks and a dozen platoons of humans fell as debris impacted on the ground, kicking up plumes of dust.

"OPEN FIRE!" Tallon ordered. The several platoons of Lylatians and Spades fired into the incoming humans, still dazed from the shock of the explosion and the fall. They tried their best to find cover, but were usually killed before they did. The well-trained army of Lylatians fired in staggered bursts so they wouldn't be caught reloading at the same time. Along with the heavy autocannons of the SDFKs, the humans became easy prey.

The 88mm autocannons fired a barrage of cannon rounds into the enemy with a series of thunderclaps. Humans that were targeted burst apart from the heavy rounds, the body parts sometimes flying through the air like confetti at a birthday party. Spider tanks were able to fire off a small burst of directed energy, killing a few troops and injuring one Spade, but the autocannons quickly ripped though the armor of the tanks. Soon, the darkness of the cave suddenly lit up with orange explosions as the spider tanks were torn to pieces.

Tallon fired the last semi-automatic burst in the clip of his Colt Mk. XI, and shoved a new clip into the bottom of the rifle. He took aim, then blew a human in half with the high velocity burst rounds. A spider tank found him and fired a long beam at him, but he did a combat roll just as the beam impacted into the stalagmite he used to hide behind, disintegrating the top half of it. Tallon took aim at the tank, then fired the grenade launcher at it, blowing the tank open and taking it out of commission.

After the last human fell, and the last spider tank was nothing more than a heap of junk, the soldiers relaxed. Few casualties had been sustained, and the enemy assault force had been greatly reduced. Tallon called it a job well done, and was just about to give an order when the ground in front of him exploded, revealing a smooth surface. The whole ground in front of him had been turned to glass by the heat. Tallon wheeled around to see a floating robot- a new mech made by the humans.

The mech had a gray, box-shaped body, with two long, downward pointing spires jutting from the rear that formed the stabilizers. In the rear of the body was a gravlift, which the humans definitely reverse engineered, that sent small pulses of shimmering energy in a circular fashion to keep it stable. Near the middle of the body was a pyramid-shaped head with two photoreceptor stalks, and had a large wire running from it to the middle of the body. On the bottom of the body was a long blade-like weapon. Several headlights, literally "head" lights, lit the cavern and illuminated the mech's target- an SDFK.

The floating mech gave of a shrill, ascending tone before the tip of the blade-like weapon lit up. A black bolt of energy rushed for the SDFK and impacted against it. The entire hovercar was disintegrated in an eerie, green flash.

"Crap, everyone, stay mobile and take that thing down!" Tallon ordered.

"Sir, that thing has friends!" a soldier observed. Tallon looked back; six more of the mechs joined the lone mech. One of them was bad enough. Seven was trouble.

Tallon took aim and fired a grenade at the mech that was closest to him. The projectile exploded, sending smoke everywhere. After the cloud cleared, the mech was still floating. A red energy shield shimmered where the grenade had hit it.

"Dang, they got shields! Fire, fire, fire!" Tallon ordered. A barrage of autocannon fire hit the mech that Tallon fired a grenade at. The shield burst, sending a small shockwave outwards. He fired a short burst into the mech, and it shuddered. Flames dotted where the shots had impacted against it. The mech hovered motionless, then a final explosion tore it apart, sending flaming pieces of twisted metal everywhere. One down, six to go.

It seemed that armor-piercing rounds had a better effect on the floating mechs, so he just used regular shots on full auto. A mech fired another blast of its cannon at a soldier. He screamed as the flesh was burned off of him, leaving a charred skeleton to fall to the ground, with the armor flying everywhere. With that kind of firepower, not even the shields on his armor could withstand that blast.

After a few more bursts and six more explosions, the remaining mechs were downed. Tallon huffed, tired from the run, his breath clouding up his visor.

"What…," Tallon gasped for air, "were…they?"

"They were Drones, sir," a Spade went to him. "They usually hang around siphoning facilities to guard them, now. However, it seems that they were reassigned for this siege. That weapon they had was the Dark Energy Bolt Cannon, capable of disintegrating anything smaller than a standard fighter."

"Great," Tallon groaned, "another enemy. Well, let's get back topside. There's nothing alive down here but us. Move out troops, triple time!"

* * *

Fox could hear the distant clamor of the battle, but he couldn't see much in front of him. He held both of his blaster in his hands, ready to fire. He heard that the humans had made it inside the city, and they could be anywhere. Here, Fox was just a sitting duck all out by himself and Marcus.

"Hey, dad," Marcus called, "you alright?"

"Would be nice if I could actually see over ten meters in front of me," Fox sighed.

"True, true," Marcus agreed. He fired off a round, and Fox heard a scream as a human fell down to the ground. After a few seconds of walking, Fox found the body- a gaping hole in his chest.

"Nice shot," Fox commented. He hated this fog more than rain just about now. His vision was clouded, radio was useless, and worse, the humans could see him while he couldn't. It gave him a sense of helplessness. Marcus had been making all of the kills, and Fox knew he was getting too careless by not noticing any potential threat.

"If we don't find support soon, we'll be dead sooner or later," Marcus frowned. "We need to find at least another soldier for help." He fired off another round into the air. A human dropped from a rooftop and landed on the ground.

"I hate this fog," Fox grumbled. "Hey, a Landmaster!" A lone tank was moving away from them.

"Hey! Hey!" Fox shouted. "Over here!"

The tank swerved its turret around and started moving towards Fox and Marcus, then suddenly stopped. The Landmaster was lifted into the air by some unseen force, and then was flung towards the two foxes at a tremendous speed.

"GET DOWN!" Fox shoved Marcus into the ground as the Landmaster tank soared just inches over their heads and crashed into the ground, sending pieces of metal everywhere. The father and son got up and looked back at the tank. Nothing seemed to have affected it, yet it was flung several hundred meters through the air like a pebble. No one inside the tank could have survived that.

"Uh, dad?" Marcus tapped Fox's shoulder. "You might want to turn around."

Fox wheeled around, both blasters ready. One look at the thing in front of them, and the heat vanished from his body.

A gigantic mech the size of half a football field and as tall as a two story building loomed overhead. It looked like a bipedal creature crawling on its belly, except crawling was how this thing walked. At the rear, six, razor-sharp swords replaced what would have been its feet and were all connected into two appendages. The arms were as long as the leg's and body's length put together, and they ended with large pincer-like weapons that each had a two-pronged weapon attached to both of them. Its head was triangular, with four curved mandibles starting from the rear of the head extending forward. The thing's two gleaming, crimson eyes sent shivers down Fox's spine.

The thing seemed to smile at Marcus and Fox as two, twenty-meter long tentacles erupted from its elbow joints and aimed them at the two. Fox and Marcus ran as fast as they could into an alley the thing couldn't reach. However, the thing stuck its head into the alley's entrance. Fox and Marcus fired repeatedly into the face of the creature, but the shots appeared to have no affect. The mech opened up its mandibles.

Fox felt a feeling of weightlessness for some weird reason. He looked down and discovered that he was being lifted off of his feet into the air. Marcus, as well as any other object in the alley met the same fate. Fox tried to get down, but couldn't. The mech closed its mandibles.

Fox, Marcus, and gigantic pieces of debris were flung into the air for several hundred meters before landing with a thud against the side of a small building. The shields took the damage of the impact, so they were left unharmed.

"What the hell was that?" Fox groaned.

"I have no clue, but it's coming for us!" Marcus cried.

The gargantuan mech leapt into the air and landed several blocks away from the two soldiers. It heaved up on of its arms, and leaned on the other for balance. Energy began to be sucked into the center of the two-pronged weapon.

"Dang! Run! Run!" Fox shouted. They tried their best to avoid the blast, but couldn't Fox was thrown off of his feet, and landed front-first into the street.

Fox had never before in his life experienced shellshock, so he didn't know what to expect. Everything was over-textured and out of focus in his vision, and a weird ringing filled his ears. Worse, he couldn't move one bit of his body- he couldn't even blink. His first thought was, _Am I dead?_ The sound of the world slowly crept back into his ears, sounding like a gigantic breaking wave. Everything snapped back into focus, and Fox got back to his feet. Marcus was far away, a look of horror on his face. The mech! Where was the mech? He turned around, and stared right into the mandible-filled face of the gargantuan.

"Oh, God," Fox gasped.

Suddenly, Fox was swept off of his feet and landed on some metal object. He was floating in midair, and turned several times to avoid the blasts from the mech. He looked down. He was on top of a Longsword. A _golden_ Longsword. He was on top of Xamuros.

The hovercraft picked up Marcus and zoomed away. After going down several dozen blocks, the hovercraft braked, making the two passengers fly off and land face-down on the ground. The Longsword unfolded itself, revealing Xamuros in bipedal form.

"What were you two thinking?!" the field master exclaimed. "Why the heck did you dare confront a Harvester up close and-?"

"Whoa, slow down," Fox interrupted. "That mech back there was a Harvester?"

Xamuros sighed, "Yes, Commander Fox. That thing was a Harvester." They all looked back to see several soldiers confront the mech just a few blocks away, the bullets pinging off of the monster.

"Why's it called a Harvester?" Marcus asked.

The Harvester suddenly extended its tentacles out of its elbow joints, and they dug into the chest cavity of two of the soldiers. The two troops tried to pry them off, but were hoisted into the air by the tentacles. Their bodies jerked as if something was being sucked out of their bodies. The soldiers squirmed one last time before falling limp. The Harvester detached its tentacles, and repeated the process for the other soldiers who couldn't get away in time.

"That's why," Xamuros shook his head. "The Harvesters are a special kind of mech that acts as a mobile siphoning facility. However, it doesn't have the power to siphon energy from the core of a planet, so it drains energy from enemy soldiers, like you just saw. It can also drain energy from anything that produces energy- electric poles, mechs, Spades, soldiers, hovercars, and the list goes on. Sometimes it produces so much energy that it must vent it out through its weapons- the particle-charge cannons and its gravity disruptor, which you both were hit by. Their armor is virtually impenetrable to any weapon."

"So how do we stop it?" Marcus asked, ducking as the mech threw a tank it drained over his head.

"Does anyone here have a three-hundred-megaton explosive?" Xamuros inquired. The two foxes dropped their jaws open. He continued, "That's what I thought. Right now, there's now way we can destroy that thing, unless…"

"'Unless'?" Fox repeated, also ducking as a lamppost drained by the Harvester landed behind him.

"Unless we starve it of energy," Xamuros answered. "It operates through a continuous supply of planetary energy, so once we starve it-" He paused to cut a comm tower that was drained in half so that it didn't hit him.

"-we'll take it out of commission!" Marcus finished.

"Yep," Xamuros nodded. "Problem is, we don't have anyway to do that except by trapping it in a prison where it can't escape. Any ideas?"

Everyone looked around and took notice of the several skyscrapers that conveniently surrounded the area where the mech was in a circular fashion.

"Dominoes, anyone?" Fox asked, a smile stretching across his muzzle. Xamuros spun his head around.

* * *

* * *

It's part 3 of 6, and we're starting to see still more of the humans' mad inventions. This time, there's electronic fog, a new Drone-class mech, and...the big, bad Harvester-class mech. By the way, once I finish posting up all of Contact's chapters (eventually...), I'm going to post up a database of every damn thing that appears in the whole Contact Saga. So far, it's fifty-two pages long, last I checked.

So I have a really, really active imagination. XD

Anyways, hope you've been enjoying the story so far.


	13. Chapter 10, Part 4: Masters of the Sky

Chapter 10, Part 4: Masters of the Sky

1124 hours

Falco let out a big, fat yawn. Nothing exciting at all had happened ever since he got into the air in his Sky Claw, aside from the appearance of the electronic fog. Sure, he periodically swooped into the city streets to take down an enemy spider tank or infantry squad, but he yearned for a pilot that was competent enough to compete with him. The only real challenge so far was the electronic fog, which made it so his multi lock was rendered almost completely useless and impaired his radar and communications. Leon's Rainbow Delta was had the only fighter in the air that could actually lock onto anything at all at long ranges, due to its wide lock-on capability.

Falco pitched downwards for yet another attack run on the enemy ground units. As he made his way into the cramped airspace above the city streets, he spotted a duet of spider tanks that were pinning down some Spades. He let loose a few dozen laser shots, and the first tank became nothing more than scrap metal and flames. He soared over the other spider tank, performed a tight U-turn, barely missing the street lamps, and then fired a last salvo into the remaining tank, ripping it into pieces.

Falco pulled up back into the air, and balanced his head on his left fist. Boredom was getting a grip on him, and he grumbled, hoping that something of interest would at least happen in the next few minutes. He got his wish.

Several bulges in the fog occurred in the area around him, and soon, the air was filled with orange directed energy beams. _Well, about time,_ Falco smiled to himself. Seraphs were tough fighters to take down, and it would give him some time to do what he did best- show everyone why he was the ace pilot of Star Fox.

He boosted, yet again, blindly into the fray, and was rewarded by a small burst of DE, which shorted out part of his shields. The Sky Claw had minimal defensive capabilities, so he cursed at himself for being so reckless.

He took his arwing into a tight spin. The barrel roll began deflecting several DEB bursts, making them ricochet all over the place. Even though the fog clouded his vision, his sight was keen enough to locate the trio of Seraphs bearing leeward at four o'clock high towards him.

He swerved his Sky Claw up and right so that he was facing the incoming fighters. He carefully aimed through the circular sight in the windshield and fired three times. The lasers hit their mark- the Seraphs' DEB cannons had been taken out of commission. Now rendered weaponless, the Seraphs jumped back into slipspace, retreating out of the area. However, still more Seraphs were to come, as well as the other type of ghoulish-looking fighters that were dubbed "Harbingers", which Star Fox and Star Serpent had encountered on Fichina.

Falco, learning from the fact that his shields were damaged by his recklessness, proceeded carefully toward the enemy, this time firing lasers while doing a barrel roll, making his shots fly out like a shotgun's rounds. Several Harbingers spouted blue explosions before dropping to the ground in pieces. Falco turned to the left and fired a quick burst into a Seraph before it jumped into slipspace. As he resumed shooting down the rest of the Harbingers, the Seraph reappeared on his six and started firing at his blind side. Falco did a loop before his arwing took too much damage and shot down the Seraph before it could jump into slipspace, resulting with the burning halves of the fighter warping away into oblivion without a proper trajectory.

Just as he was about to take another group down, several unguided missiles hit them portside, taking most of them down. He turned to see several fighter mechs swarm over the squadron of enemy fighters.

Xamuros had managed to recruit some of these special mechs that the teams had met back in François. The fighter mechs had a circular, disk-like chassis with the rectangular, curved head attached to the front. On either side of the disk were two lasers- new twin lasers that the humans had made through reverse engineering. They were less prone to maintenance problems, but had a tendency to overheat if not fired in small bursts, which is why fighter mechs traveled together in order to fire several staggered volleys. On the bottom of the disk were two dual missile launchers. Though rendered useless by the electronic fog, the machines didn't need to depend on lock-on tech to take down enemy fighters. Flanking each side of the disk were two long spires on each side- the G-diffuser copy. Also, mounted between the G-diffusers were two engines on either. Since the engines were only hydrogen-fueled, the fighter mech is restricted to atmospheric combat. As Falco discovered from a recent burn mark from François, the fighter mech had the ability to transform into a four-legged ground mech with a light DEB cannon and higher shielding to make up for that fact. The fighter mechs were very fast- faster than his Sky Claw- but were very weak in shielding when in fighter mode.

Falco grimaced as the fighter mechs stole his prey from him, killing off the rest of the enemy fighters without loosing a single fighter themselves. He boosted away to find some more prey; he didn't get much chance to go all out against the half-dozen fighters he destroyed a few minutes ago.

A small aerial convoy was approaching the city from out in the west. He could see a few low-tech bombers with them, as well as some fighter support. Falco wanted to take them on, but he would be torn to shreds by the convoy united. The squadron of fighter mechs flew on both sides of his fighter. A lone mech, obviously the commander, extended its head outwards, turned it towards him, and tilted it towards the human convoy. Falco nodded back- they would take them on together.

The nine fighters flew in Delta (V-shaped) formation towards the enemy convoy and hit them from behind. Falco jinked several times to avoid tracer rounds from the bombers' ball turrets, then returned fire along with the mechs. Lasers filled the whole area as fighter and bomber clashed in the air.

Falco, now in range, was finally able to use his multi-lock. He aimed at four bombers, waited for the lock to max out, then fired. Four streaks of light green energy rushed out from the Sky Claw's prow and knocked all of the bombers out of the air before they even had a chance to drop their payload. A few more bursts of lasers were the only things necessary to mop up the rest of the fighters.

The ace pilot leaned back into his seat and stared blankly out of his canopy. He had gotten more than enough action for the day. Too bad he didn't even have to pull off any of his fancy maneuvers off against the fighters. Rarely had he ever used one-hundred percent of his potential against his enemy. What he used for the enemy convoy was about twenty-three percent.

_At least the battle ain't over yet,_ Falco thought to himself as he boosted away to find more prey to hunt. If he loved anything in the universe, minus himself, it was probably going to be being behind the canopy of his Sky Claw.

* * *

Ace soared through the airspace above Venom City in his Bloody Maw's stealth configuration. If he couldn't see the enemy, then so be it they can't see him either. The genius of Star Serpent loved flying almost as much as inventing new tech, or rather "toys" the way he used them. Not one to remain serious for too long, he lazily steered with one hand as he made his way around his designated patrol pattern.

Just as the albino was about to change his course, a new contact emerged from the fog. A small squadron of Drones had intercepted him while he was loafing around.

Ace knew that the Drones couldn't harm him at all with their Dark Energy Bolt Cannons, since his fighter was too large for them to disintegrate. He checked the surrounding area. There was a nearby office building, and a small squad of human soldiers was making their way through the streets. The only _real_ threat was that the Drones' Bolt Cannon was a _blade_-like weapon. Getting sliced up by giant swords while in the sky isn't the prettiest way to go down in flames. However, the Drones have not yet detected Ace in his fighter, due to its stealth technology. That gave him the upper hand.

He maneuvered his Bloody Maw so that a Drone was in front of it, while another was behind it. For his plan to work, it required perfect timing.

He kicked the fighter into assault mode, and as the Drones reeled in surprise of the sudden appearance of his fighter he fired the rear flak cannon and the railgun at the same time. The result was that both the Drone behind him and the one in front of him were both sent spiraling into the ground below- one with a massive hole in it, the other having dozens of small ones.

A Drone tried to slice at Ace with its Bolt Cannon, but he did a barrel roll at a precise angle, making the hovering mech spiral into an office building. Another slashed from behind and made a solid hit, but the assault configuration's mighty shields were able to withstand the blow. Ace swerved around and rewarded the mech with a barrage of autocannon fire. The red shield shimmered and popped before the Drone had several holes punched into it. The mech dropped to the ground, where it promptly exploded.

The Drone that Ace sent into the office building blew out of the walls and latched onto the Bloody Maw, making both start falling to the ground. Ace hit the brakes, making the mech fly into the ground and onto the squad of human soldiers. The plan had worked almost perfectly.

Ace converted the Bloody Maw back into the stealth configuration and sped off to find more enemies. To his surprise, he spotted at least two dozen Seraph fighters bearing towards the CP. He had to stop them here and now. And it was time to try out a new configuration.

He transmuted the Bloody Maw with a swift pull of a lever. The lower semi-wings bent downwards at a forty degree angle, while the semi-wings that were closer towards the cockpit bent upwards at a thirty-five degree angle. The rear flak cannon folded up and formed a new engine, and the three-pronged design of the fighter joined to form a single triangle. The Bloody Maw was now in its omegaconfiguration.

Even faster than the previous version, the omega configuration featured increased speed, due to the new engine, and the firepower of its ballistic weaponry skyrocketed. The energy shielding had risen to an unrivaled level as well. However, the amount of energy this configuration drains forces the user to remain in it for only short periods of time. The discharge of the energy was so great that it continually drains the internal shielding at a fast rate. Also, there are no rapid-fire weapons to ward off close-ranged attackers, making it a prime target up close, and since the rear flak cannon is gone, the rear as well.

Ace punched the throttle and sped to an unimaginable velocity- so great was this velocity that it trisected the two Seraphim stupid enough to stand in its way.

He monitored his remaining shields- 79%.

He fired a single railgun blast that decimated nine more Seraphim in one huge green explosion.

56%

A Seraph fired a directed energy beam at him just as he blew away two more of the missions with two missiles- both unguided.

45%

Ace saw the beam coming, did some quick calculations, and swerved his ship while spinning into a barrel roll.

23%

The beam was deflected by the barrel roll, and by using his tight spin, redirected the energy beam at the rest of the fighters.

14%

One by one, the fighters were blown apart or retreated into slipstream. By the time three Seraphim escaped the attack, the pilot who fired the beam knew it was too late as the beam came towards him.

9%

The human's own beam blew him out of the sky.

3%

He aimed in between the Seraphs that just got out of slipstream and fired a railgun slug and quickly pulled out of omega mode. As the last Seraphim were disintegrated by the railgun blast, he checked his shielding.

1%

7%

13%

The shields were now recharging from the immense energy drain, and Ace let out a sigh of relief that the new configuration was a success. _Just need to smooth out the shield drain,_ he thought.

Suddenly, the Bloody Maw kicked upwards a little bit, the engines sputtered, and then burned out. The Bloody Maw plunged downwards at a fast rate. Ace looked behind him and saw that black smoke was trailing from all of the engines. _Crap, the omega configuration must have put too much strain on the engines' cooling system! _he thought. Ace slammed down on the eject button.

The canopy was blown off as jetpacks underneath the flight chair ignited, sending Ace into the sky, and out of harms way. The albino looked back down to see his trusted fighter hit the ground, bursting into a ball of fire and metal. Ace had finally found a major weakness with his fighter design- its high maintenance.

By now, the chair was plunging towards the ground, and the parachute deployed. He activated the energy shields on his armor and pulled out his two favorite Uzi-32's and placed his armor-piercing weapon on his back. It was time to get down and dirty.

* * *

Leon just couldn't stand not doing anything. This had been the longest in his career that he hasn't killed something for so long. A couple weeks had passed since he downed a fighter back at François, and he was getting quite trigger-happy. He was practically ready to pull the trigger at anything in sight.

His Wolfen-class starfighter, the Rainbow Delta, had only lock-on attacks, but had a wide-lock signal and could lock onto targets even obscured by the electronic fog. Not only that, but it boasted heavy shielding and two bombs, though without lasers or long afterburn times.

The lizard started to twitch from his nervousness. Leon needed to kill something right this instant- even if it has to be an ally that dies. He boosted as long as the Rainbow Delta's engine would allow before letting the gauge recharge, then repeated the process. A small series of beeps indicated that several enemies had entered lock-on range. _Finally…some fighters to blow out of the sky!_ he smiled to himself.

After a few moments, the targets revealed themselves- a huge squadron of Harbingers that were raining death onto the soldiers in the area. Leon pressed, and held onto the trigger. A myriad of beeps sounded as all of the Harbingers were zoned in. He kept the trigger held down and let the wide lock do its job.

A nearly endless stream of laser missiles rushed out of the prow of the Rainbow Delta, and they all hit their targets. The lock-on system only allowed for each target to only be locked onto at the minimal stage, so its attacks were very weak. However, the fact that Leon would constantly be able to hit his enemies continuously compensated for that fact.

As he sent salvo after endless salvo after the Harbingers, Leon performed some barrel rolls in order to avoid getting pulverized by the plasma weaponry. Sure, the plasma weapons only affected organic objects, just going straight thought inorganic things. However, _he_ was organic, so he tried not to get to close

A trio of Harbingers managed to sneak around and fire at his unguarded rear. Thankfully, the shots missed the lizard or passed through the rest of the Rainbow Delta's hull. Leon performed a U-turn to get a better view of his targets, then fired a barrage of laser missiles that eventually downed the fighters. _Finally,_ he smiled in sadistic glee. _First blood!_

Leon felt a surge of power as he watched the fighters spiral into the city streets, where they exploded on impact. That power gave him energy to kill even more Harbingers, and after several minutes, the remaining enemy fighters were all downed. He let go of the trigger.

"Sweet, sweet death", as he called it, made Leon smile as he went off to look for more things to slaughter. After several uneventful minutes, he groaned as nothing seemed to show up anymore. His hopes were finally fulfilled as a satisfying beep sounded off. A trio of Seraphim flew into view, and Leon blasted away with his unlimited supply of laser missiles, letting out a wicked cackle as he did so.

The enemy fighters took direct hits from the weak laser missiles, then jumped into slipstream. The fighters reappeared behind the Rainbow Delta, and peppered the fighter a few times with their DEB cannons. Leon merely looped over them, and let loose another few dozen laser missiles. The pilots were really getting ticked off right about now. This time, they did an unexpected thing.

They encircled Leon and accelerated to high speeds. The Seraph fighters flew around him for a few meters, and then disappeared into slipstream, only to be replaced by another Seraph, and the cycle repeated again and again. The result was that as soon as Leon locked onto one, it disappeared into slipstream, another one came into view, then disappeared, and the cycle repeated again and again. Now rendering Leon helpless, the Seraphim brought forth a stinging barrage of quick DE bursts, then relocated before he could retaliate.

Leon thought about dropping a bomb, but considered that he might accidentally kill some fellow soldiers with the gigantic blast radius. He abstained from doing so, and tried to think of another way to take down the Seraphs. He couldn't find another way, so he was just about to reach for the bomb trigger when-

* * *

Panther spotted Leon being swarmed by Seraphim and fired three Zapper shots, each shot downing a Seraph. His Black Rose-class Wolfen flew up alongside to Leon's Rainbow Delta. Panther performed some sign language.

(You owe me.)

Leon signaled back a very rude comment.

Panther just shook his head and signaled for both of them to fly together, increasing their effectiveness against enemy aircraft. Leon shook his head. Then he added that that would mean the death of many more enemy fighter pilots. The reptile couldn't refuse this offer. It was easy to get Leon to cooperate. Mention the word kill, death, murder, or any related thing, and he'll do whatever you say. Now with the powerful Zapper cannon alongside a rapid-fire wide lock, the panther and chameleon made a deadly pair.

The two Wolfens roared through the sky and found a small armor column heading west for the Venom City Resort. Panther swooped down low and made a quick ritual.

He picked up his rose- the symbol of why he was a soldier in the first place- and spoke to himself, "Alicia… I'll never, ever forget you. This is for all the pain you endured." Panther purred softly, then boosted toward the enemies, with Leon close behind.

Leon was the first to fire with his laser missiles, each one putting a large dent in each spider tank. The legged war machines aimed their turrets into the sky and fired a network of directed energy beams. Panther slid through the small distances between the beams until he got it sight of his target.

Time slowed down as he used the prow of the Black Rose as a gun sight and aimed for a spider tank. Panther jammed down on the trigger, and a long, thin beam of blue energy ripped the tank apart in a millisecond. Time resumed its normal pace, and Panther turned the rest of the spider tanks into smoldering piles of flaming chasses. He was about to turn around to find more enemies, but a gigantic, tentacle-like cannon filled his canopy. The cannon belonged to a juggernaut tank.

The gargantuan remained the same in design, albeit the single heavy DEB cannon had disappeared. It was replaced with two, snakelike tentacles with vertebrae-like structures on either side of them that sprouted from where the cannon were supposed to be. Yellow energy began building up on the inside of the cannons' tube.

A swift jink helped Panther dodge the two yellow beams of energy. The beams impacted against skyscraper, and to Panther's surprise, cleaved it into four, the top quarters collapsing to the ground. The humans had engineered a disintegrator ray.

Still in Research and Development, the D-ray was an extremely powerful weapon. It fired beam so powerful that it could shear the atomic bonds of anything in contact with it- even distamium couldn't hold up against the D-ray. The first two attempts at making the weapon sent most of the scientists on the team into oblivion, and until the war, the project was discontinued.

Panther and Leon maintained their high speed to avoid getting vaporized, firing shots into the juggernaut tank whenever possible. Not even the Zapper slugs seemed to have an effect. _The humans must've upgraded the tank's armor, _Panther scowled._ Great. Just great._

Several Zapper shots later, the tank opened up several holes on its side- each hole housing a plasma machine gun ball-turret. Plasma soon began filling the air, and Panther tried not to let the projectiles hit him. He fired into a hole and was rewarded with a small explosion, as well as one less PMG to worry about.

Leon was more efficient with taking down the PMGs. He merely locked on once and fired, taking all of the PMGs on one side of the juggernaut tank out of commission. A dozen more shots followed, and Panther followed suit. All twenty-six of the PMGs were out of commission.

Panther tried to find a weak spot in the hull of the gigantic tank, but he couldn't find one. Every place on the tank was covered in thick armor, and he was getting a little ticked that he couldn't find even a small chink in its hide. Leon was just as helpless.

He was just about to give up when he spotted something out of the ordinary- a small, mirage-esque shimmer in the air below the juggernaut tank. He flew under the tank to get a better view, and found a gigantic gravlift on the bottom of the tank. The whole vehicle must have been so heavy that it needed some extra help in staying upright. He fired several shots- the gravlift dimming where he had blown it apart. A couple more shots, and the whole tank shuddered, then started to collapse.

Panther boosted out from underneath the tank and looked around to see the juggernaut tank land on the ground. The energy of the D-ray went out of control and caused a chain reaction, taking the whole juggernaut tank with it with seven yellow explosions, the final one ripping the whole vehicle apart. Panther performed a barrel roll to avoid getting pulverized by shrapnel.

Leon flew beside him and motioned, (You know, for a flirt, you do okay in the air.)

Panther shook his head, and boosted off with his reptilian friend into the reaches of the electronic fog.

* * *

* * *

Still more new enemies! ...Well, actually, it's just a different variant of the juggernaut tank, but still...it's got disintegration rays...

I'm rather inexperienced with writing up dogfights, so I did the best I could here. Don't know if I did alright, but I hope it shows improvement from chapters one and six.


	14. Chapter 10, Part 5: Things Get a Little

Chapter 10, Part 5: Things Get a Little Complicated…

Xamuros weaved through the city alleys in Longsword form with Fox and Marcus riding on top. He braked to a halt, and the two vulpines dismounted while he returned to bipedal form.

"So what's the plan?" Xamuros queried.

"Alright, here it is- First, get some explosives from the…" Fox began.

The other two listened to Fox's idea. Xamuros, being a supersoldier, quickly calculated the paths to the objectives, the amount of cover that they would expect, and the probability of success. The odds were twenty-seven-to-one against them. He also noticed that the plan called for many risks to be taken, as well as the chance that the Harvester might not be imprisoned. But what was life without trial by fire?

Xamuros was the first to notice the cloaked human who had eavesdropped onto the whole plan. The human ran to tell the commanders and got away before he could fire.

"Did that human just overhear us?" Fox inquired.

"Affirmative," Xamuros nodded, "I shall pursue him now and-"

"No, wait sir," Fox smiled. "They've taken the bait. That plan was all fake. Here's the real one- Marcus, get to the top of that broken down apartment over there and snipe any enemy who comes this way. Xamuros, get your Spades ready and ambush the reinforcements in tandem with Marcus's covering fire. I'll get some comp L and take down those skyscrapers, understood? Move out!"

Xamuros folded back up into the Longsword while Marcus and Fox hurried off to their positions. He sped like a blur through the streets, not caring if any Drones or troops saw him.

After a few minutes of travel, he reached a house that had crumbled from an artillery shell. Four Spades had been waiting for him to arrive. He extended out his arms, legs, and head, stood up, and walked toward the supersoldiers, who saluted him.

"At ease," the field master ordered, then called out. "When we joined the Confederation, you all took an oath from me."

"Aid the Lylatians against the human aggressors and exterminate them all," the Spades chanted in unison.

"For the sake of a free people," Xamuros continued, "we all follow an order that won't be completed until this war ends."

"To defeat the humans and smite them into dust, then let them retreat with their tails between their legs." the Spades spoke as one.

"You are my brothers, not only in arms, but in creation," the field master pressed on. "We are united for a single cause. Let's go out there and fulfill it!"

The Spades cheered before Xamuros waved a hand horizontally in one swift motion- a universal sign for silence.

"Camouflage yourselves," Xamuros ordered. "Strike when the first human's head is blown off his shoulders." With a muffled buzz, they activated their stealth suits, making them almost completely transparent, but in the low visibility of the fog, they had a slight advantage. That, and the humans weren't going to expect the Spades to have joined the fray.

A platoon of humans came into view- three with rocket launchers, seven with plasma assault rifles, one with a portable DEB cannon, and a whole dozen with SMGs. A quartet of Drones has accompanied the group, and they stealthily made their way toward the false positions. Xamuros and his Spades got behind the enemy soldiers, Daggerblades and Jackhammers ready, awaiting the signal. He motioned for two to go on the sides of the column. They hid in the buildings and got into position. Xamuros got behind the wreckage of what used to be a tool shed, and aimed for humans with the rocket launchers.

A loud _CHOOM _echoed in the distance, followed with the head of the human carrying the DEB cannon exploding, sending him down into the ground dead before he even landed. The Spades fired while moving, giving the humans the illusion that they were ambushed by a massive enemy force, making them use tactics that were virtually harmless to the Spades.

Xamuros took dead aim at a grenade on a soldier's belt. A single Daggerblade burst made a flurry of shrapnel fly in several directions, killing a squad of opponents. A half-dozen Jackhammers took down another.

The humans and Drones were completely confused now, both by the realization that they weren't taking any enemies down and by the hallucinogens. Marcus's dead aim with the sniper only made things worse for them. The stealth suits wore off, and the humans were surprised even more by the realization that the enemies gunning them down were Spades.

The Drones finally went into action, firing their Dark Energy Bolt Cannons toward the supersoldiers. A shot hit Xamuros and made him topple to the ground yet again with shields down.

_Why the heck do I always get knocked down to the ground?_ Xamuros thought with a growl, the warning tone of the shield depletion filling his sound receptors.

The Spades quickly finished off a Drone by concentrating their fire on it, sending the hovering mech plummeting into the ground, catching two humans in the violent explosion that followed. The fog was lit with fire from the burning wreckage.

Xamuros got back to his feet and took cover as his shields recharged, sending small ripples of energy down the length of his body. He rolled behind a hovercar as it was vaporized by a Drone, then fired a stream of Jackhammers into its shield while the cannon was recharging. With some more concentrated fire, the Drone was ripped apart by an explosion as a Jackhammer round hit the dark energy generator. A small black hole appeared, and the Spades held onto a nearby object in order to avoid getting sucked in.

The rest of the human platoon and the remaining Drones was sucked into the black hole, never to see the light of day again as they were crushed into oblivion by the gravity. After a few moments, the black hole wavered, then shrunk into nothingness.

The five Spades roared with cheers from the victory of the skirmish.

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Xamuros interfered with the hoorahs, "now let's get up to the second floor."

The machines leapt all the way to the top of a collapsed building and waited. Xamuros looked into the distance. Suddenly, an orange kitsune came up through the stairway, whom the Spades, minus Xamuros, saluted.

"At ease," Fox gasped for air. "It's all ready. Do you want the honor?" He opened his palm to Xamuros. Inside it was a bomb trigger. The supersoldier accepted it. He stared off to the skyscrapers and clicked the trigger, revealing a button on the top. The machine pressed it.

The electronic fog around the base of the construct glowed orange from the gigantic explosion. Without the foundation on that side and the heavy burden of the building leaning on the new weak spot in the structure, it toppled into another skyscraper, which collapsed into another, and another. The gigantic "dominoes" hit each other until there were no more left. The only things left were toppled buildings forming a circular prison.

Everyone went tense as they waited for Marcus to signal that the Harvester was trapped inside. After several seconds, two sniper rifle beams cut straight up into the air, and everyone cheered. The Harvester had been imprisoned. But the problems didn't end there. A beeping warned Xamuros that his position had been locked onto.

"Everyone! Scatter!" Xamuros shouted and leapt out of the way as an orange beam of energy dug into the ground where he was just moments ago. The beam expanded its lens and a transparent humanoid shape emerged. The beam faded, and the thing gained back its color.

The creature towered at eight feet tall and was covered head to toe with gray full-body armor. Its helmet was reminiscent of samurai warriors with a sci-fi mix, with a large headpiece covering the top and back of the head and stacked metal covering the front and sides. Orange, glowing lenses allowed the soldier to see. Black, corrugated matte covered the joints, giving them more flexibility. Its arms, which went all the way down to its knees, both had triple-bladed claw gauntlets attached to their wrists. The two legs were like any humans, but the knee and ankle joints were much thinner in contrast with the rest of the legs. Its head held a helmet with a breathing mask connected around the mouth and nose area, and a corrugated pipe led to an air tank on its back. Just everything about the soldier had a ghastly feel to it. This thing was a shock trooper.

Recent success from the creation of the Hunters led to new experiments with bio-engineering. These genetically-altered human shock troopers were used as an ambush soldier, could be rapidly deployed across the battlefield, and were very worthy opponents. They were extremely fast, but are restricted to low shielding and melee combat, though still deadly with their claw gauntlets.

Around the block, several more beams of energy hit the ground- more shock troopers had entered the battle. The shock trooper in front of the group of soldiers made a single motion with his hand, and the rest of the shock troopers scattered with amazing speed before it too leapt away.

Two shock troopers appeared on both sides of Xamuros and sliced at him, knocking out his already depleted shields and knocking him once more into the ground. Fox retaliated by firing his plasma and laser blasters, making a shock trooper spew white blood before collapsing to the ground. The other one was ripped apart by Jackhammers.

Suddenly, a shock trooper came from behind Fox and tackled him to the ground, while a Spade was beheaded by a claw gauntlet. Xamuros fired a Daggerblade burst into the shock trooper on Fox, but it leapt with high agility to the ceiling, where it lashed at him with his gauntlets. Xamuros suffered a long, but shallow wound on his chest, and fired the rest of his Jackhammers into the shock trooper, making it topple to the ground, spraying white blood on the ground as it jerked. A plasma slug to the head from Fox's blaster made the enemy stay still forevermore.

A Spade officer nearby predicted a shock trooper's ambush and leapt out of the way of a lunging soldier and rewarded it with the decapitation of its arms as he slashed at it. The body fell to the ground, and Xamuros stepped on its head with his spiked foot.

The last shock trooper came from behind Fox and was about to cleave him in two when three bullets hit it in the face, sending it to the floor. Krystal stepped out from behind the corner, her Chantellerault smoking.

"That makes us even," the vulpine smiled.

Fox looked down to the floor at the shock troopers' bodies and whined, "Don't these humans ever stop inventing stuff?"

"Most likely, no," Xamuros sighed. "Well, those shock troopers weren't too tough. At least be thankful that there aren't any comma-"

Then, a Spade yelled, "More enemy contacts! Looks like they got a few commandos, sir!"

Xamuros shrugged and turned around. This time, orange _and_ red beams of energy hit in several places around the block. He caught a glance of a commando shock trooper. It was still of the same shape as a regular one, but had red power stripes running along its legs, arms, and head. It also had large rods on its shoulders; they were G-diffusers. Fifteen shock troopers with seven commandos…their chances of victory were…18% with the current circumstances.

"There's too many of them," Xamuros observed. "Convert into Longswords and retreat. Commanders Fox and Krystal, you might want to hop on one."

The four Spades converted into Longswords, the two foxes mounted on two of them, and they sped away. The shock troopers tried to pursue, but not even they could chase down the swift Longswords.

After a few miles, the hover transports changed back to bipedal form, and they stopped in a broken down garage. Everybody was given a chance to rest and cross-level their ammo and water…for a little while, anyways.

The Spade private checked the outside, then reported, "All clear, sirs and ma'am. No sign of pursuit by the enemy."

Xamuros checked the wound he received from the shock trooper back in the building. To his surprise, it was bleeding red blood. Human blood.

"N-no," Xamuros stuttered, "i-it can't be! I'm…one of them?"

The rest of the Spades gasped, and then cut themselves. They, too, bled a deep, red blood.

"We…are h-humans?!" the field master fell to his knees. "No, no, no! How is it possible? We're…fighting out own kind?"

"And so what?" Fox spread his arms out. "We're still allies! It doesn't matter now- we've got some enemies to take down!"

"I don't believe you're still asking for our help!" the field master growled. "We're humans- your enemies!"

Krystal went up to Xamuros and spoke, "No. You _used_ to be humans. But things don't change. We are still fighting for the same cause." She extended a hand towards the Spade.

Xamuros slowly looked behind his shoulder, spun his head, and accepted the hand.

"For freedom," the Spade nodded. "Let's finish this fight." He flicked his arm and his Jackhammers reloaded with a _shink_.

* * *

Brutus tended to enjoy having armored units for support, but infantry, mech, and Spade support worked just as well.

Many of the mech variations were refitted with new weaponry and armor, courtesy of Lylatian Engineering. The assault mech had the same leg and body design, but was thicker with the new armor. However, the head was totally redone. The head was in the shape of a sideways rectangular prism, with a beak-like ram jutting out. The chainguns were moved to a position that yielded high accuracy, and on either side of the mech were new rocket pods. The assault mechs with Brutus's squad were traveling in a second mode- its transportation mode. It basically folded up its head into the body, squatted down to around nine feet high, and was gifted with higher mobility. This mode was applied to most mechs in the Confederation.

The melee mech was also redesigned. The variation now suffered from slower acceleration, but had very thick armor plating. Its head, basically a large, black box, was fitted with a purplish energy shield on the front to both bolster its offense and protect it. The shield was circular, with large, vertical slits from the top and bottom that went almost all the way to the shield's center. These mechs now had their shields off in transportation mode.

The reconnaissance mech was fitted with treads similar to the anti-aircraft mech for high speed. Instead of plasma autocannons, the mech now boasted laser machine guns instead to improve mobility. The head was designed with a triangular shape to decrease drag, and it had some small radars and thermal scanners on both sides of the head.

The anti-aircraft mech still yielded the same treaded legs, but the torso was more elongated in order for it to support the top-heavy mech. The head-turret now held heavy flak guns and new LAAAMs, short for **L**ow **A**ltitude **A**nti-**A**ircraft **M**issiles, both of which were also were effective against tanks and other armor.

The heavy weapons mech still yielded its quadruped layout, but the head now received the best of Lylatian heavy weaponry. The plasma cannons were gone, instead blessed with high-powered energy railguns. The Directed Energy bolt autocannons were left unchanged, but the targeting systems of both kinds of armaments had been calibrated to a level that it could hit a single human from a couple miles away. However, the mech still suffered from low speed, due to its already thick armor, even in transportation mode.

The long range mech was completely redesigned. It now was built with a three-legged body to give it stability when firing its heavy long-ranged weaponry, yet give it high mobility at the same time. The head now boasted high-yield arc laser systems for short and mid-ranged combat. The anti-aircraft missile tubes were transmuted into heavy laser missile tubes with a multi lock-on frequency. What used to be heavy rocket canisters were now replaced with the latest in Lylatian ballistic weaponry, the LR4 "GrImpact" rocket tubes- forty stacked in rows of five on each side of the head turret.

For Spades, it had been discovered just ten minutes ago that the Daggerblade was less useful against humans than Lylatians, due to their different neuralgenetic makeup. Instead, they were given powerful plasma SMGs- light, but accurate and deadly.

The infantry around Brutus had a large diversity of weapons. Some held two plasma SMGs in each hand, while others used laser assault rifles. A few were given anti-tank laser cannons, while two were given sniper rifles. Brutus glanced at his own weapon- a chaingun with a new miniature homing DEB cannon attached to the underside.

Brutus, as well as everyone else, was thankful that the electronic fog was beginning to dissipate- soon, it would fade completely out of the city. In the mean time, a cloud that hindered visibility to around fifty yards remained. Now, radio, radar, and electronic devices could be used.

A recon mech rode out in front, peeked around the corner of the street and unfolded itself into attack mode. The rest of the mechs did the same, and the melee mechs activated their energy shields, which flickered to life. The recon mech that first unfolded went up to a Spade, who nodded after several moments.

"He says there's enemy contacts up ahead, sir," the lieutenant Spade reported. "We've got some jeeps, a few spider tanks, and scattered infantry with DEB and plasma weaponry."

"Good work, recon," Brutus thanked. "Everyone, ready your weapons. Long range mechs, can you fire over these low houses?" A quick nod from them informed him that they could. Brutus continued, "Then do so on my mark. Madison, Rhodes! Watch over the long range mechs with your squads. Everyone else, seek cover and hit the enemy hard. Melee mechs, you know what to do. Get moving when the long range mechs fire."

Brutus observed the enemy around the corner for a few minutes. When they started to slack a little, he shouted, "Attaaack!"

Backblast smoke from the long range mechs' heavy GrImpact rockets filled the back of the column as the shrieking rockets took down several jeeps and disrupted the infantry, making them stupidly rush out into the middle of the street.

The three melee mechs then rushed into the street and tackled any enemy soldier stupid enough to stand in their way into the ground, killing most of them, or cracking half the bones in the bodies for the others.

The Spades, infantry, and mechs rushed into the street, seeking cover in rubble, foxholes, or behind buildings and fired into the exposed enemies. Brutus saw a couple Lylatians get cut down by some heavy plasma fire from a human jeep, and activated the homing DEB cannon on the underside of his chaingun. A small scope flipped up, and he looked through it. He aimed the cross over the middle of the jeep. A small, green circle went over the jeep and a long beep signaled that he had achieved lock onto the enemy armor. Brutus pulled the secondary trigger.

A purplish beam of spiraling energy rushed from the barrel of the miniature homing DEB cannon and streaked towards the jeep. The driver saw it coming and tried to drive away to avoid it in a zigzag patter. The beam of directed energy curved to hit its mark. The weapon operated by overheating the engine of the target with the immense heat from the DE. Soon enough, the jeep bulged a little bit and the engine exploded, sending bits of metal everywhere. The suppressing fire was no more.

A nearby heavy weapons mech leaned from cover, firing a series of meter long DE beams from its DE bolt autocannon, cutting down a group of infantry seeking cover. A rocket hit the mech in response, though not killing it. In retaliation, a Lylatian fired a burst of lasers into the rocket trooper. A sniper from a house cut down a Spade, and an assault mech fired a quartet of rockets into the building, crumbling it down, then continued cutting down enemy soldiers with its chainguns. Here, everyone helped their comrades, who all fought for the same reason.

Brutus noticed that the remaining enemies were further down the street, and deployed his chaingun's bipod into over the piece of rubble that he used for cover. He laid down accurate suppressing fire and cut down a group of infantry.

A rifleman managed to land a hit on Brutus, but the plasma was absorbed as a screen of light expanded and blocked the projectile. As even more rifle shots came streaking towards him, the light screens kept absorbing the slugs. He was getting ticked that he couldn't locate the damn soldier, so he concentrated on a spider tank while his shields still held up, which bulged, then blew apart with a few seconds of homing DE. A last rifle shot shorted out Brutus's shield, causing a brilliant flash of light, and he got down behind the rubble he was using for cover. At the moment, his shields were down unless he found a source of electricity. In the meantime, a recon mech found the rifle man and cut him in half with laser fire.

It wasn't before long that the enemy platoon was all but neutralized. Then Brutus noticed something weird.

"Nice firefight, but…doesn't anybody else find it weird that the long range mechs only fired one volley?" Brutus asked.

Then everyone turned to the street corner where they left the mechs with a squad. A dark black object flew over the low houses and landed at Brutus's feet. It was a fox from the defending squad, and his fur was singed black and was smoking from electricity.

Brutus cursed, then ordered, "Everyone recharge your shields, then investigate." He then went over to a broken street light and waited. A thin beam of curved, white energy erupted from his armor and attached to the still active street light. After a few seconds, a satisfied beep ensured that his shields were recharged.

Brutus waited for the rest of the soldiers to get ready, and then stopped at the building's corner. He leaned around the corner; chaingun raised and gasped, "Gods above us." Everyone went around the corner to see what he was looking at.

Fried, smoking bodies like the fox they saw earlier lay strewn across the street. The also-smoking long range mechs laid on the ground in a heap. They had been taken down from the inside, though in some places on the head-turrets were holes exactly a centimeter in diameter. Even the very air smelled singed with electricity.

"What 'de hell happened 'ere, sir?" a soldier inquired.

Brutus, still looking at the bodies and wreckage replied, "I dunno, but I ain't taking a liking to this." He turned around to face the soldier, and then noticed he was gone. The soldiers around him jumped in surprise. Brutus looked around to see where the soldier had gone. He flicked out his tongue and smelled singed air again, but stronger and higher upwards. Everyone looked straight up.

A being of electricity was standing on the second floor balcony of a house, holding the soldier by the face. The soldier jerked wildly as over five-thousand volts of electricity fried the helpless man, and the being released the dead soldier to the ground, still smoking and spasmodic from the high voltage.

The three-meter tall entity had a humanoid figure, but with no head…or any flesh or bones for that matter. Red electricity formed the entire makeup of its body- chest, arms, and legs. The only thing that wasn't electrified about this monstrosity was that buried in the chest cavity was a black, beating heart. Two more of these things materialized into the air, each identical to the other. The one in the center spoke a quick flurry of electromagnetic gibberish, then they all dematerialized themselves into the ground, sending shockwaves (literally "shock" waves) into the ground as they did so.

One rematerialized on the ground next to an assault mech, and leapt onto its head-turret. The mech roared as it tried to shake it off. Electricity began to cover the entire mech, and then it fell to the ground neutralized and lined with holes were the electric bolts had entered its body.

The rest of the soldiers and mechs fired into the thing, but to their dismay, every single shot sent directly through it, not affecting it in any way whatsoever. The thing put its right hand up to where its mouth would be and hissed a little. Brutus realized it was yawning. The thing then laughed maniacally and dematerialized into the air with a sizzle.

This time, three of these electric beings went for the soldiers, and fried three of them, then continued to grasp at and fry more soldiers. A soldier managed to fire a grenade at one of the things. To everyone's surprise, it stuck onto the thing due to electromagnetism, where it exploded. When the smoke cleared, it was still standing, unaffected. It reached out a hand and fried the soldier.

Everyone started to run as fast as they could away from the things, but then they just dispersed and reappeared in front of the ground, frying even more soldiers and mechs. _How can you kill something that isn't stopped by bullets, lasers, plasma, explosives, and can fry you by merely touching you? _Brutus thought.

Brutus already knew that those types of rounds didn't affect them, so he tried directed energy. To his surprise, the cannon actually locked onto one of the beings as it fried a soldier- right at its heart. He raised an eyebrow, and then fired into the creature. The beam hit straight and true.

The heart exploded, sending the creature into the ground, where it seemed to gasp for air. Then it reared back and sent a mighty shockwave in all directions, shattering the glass of the nearby buildings. The thing swayed a little bit, then slowly faded into nothingness as it fell into the ground.

Now that Brutus knew how to counter these creatures, the heavy weapons mechs fired only their DE bolt autocannons into them. Yet another of the things died in the same exact way as its fallen brother. Before the last one could be killed, it dematerialized and didn't come back.

"What _was_ that thing?" Brutus asked a Spade. "You seem to know of every thing the humans come up with."

"Those creatures were a product of an accidental creation by the humans while they were fooling around with a planet's elemental energy, sir," the Spade replied. "With the success of the creation of these creatures, they started making more and dubbed them Epitomes, since they are an incarnation of a certain energy that is found within a planet.

"Epitomes can range from different types. There is the Epitome of Inferno, the Epitome of Water, the Epitome of Light, the Epitome of Terrain, and so on, and so forth. The ones we just faced were the Epitome of Voltage, and you can probably guess why they're called that, sir.

"It isn't easy to make an Epitome, which is why there aren't that many. However, they can control any of their type of elemental energy around them, which was why these Epitomes of Voltage were particularly stronger in the electronic fog. They are extremely tough to take down, and boast many a set of abilities- different for each one."

"I really hate these humans now," Brutus frowned.

"Likewise, sir," the Spade agreed.

* * *

Wolf and Ace made their way into the deserted Main Street. The carrion laid everywhere, and it was eerily silent. For some time now, the enemy had pulled out of Venom City with the disappearance of the electronic fog. Wolf was just about tired from getting shot at, shooting back, getting hit all the time, and walking around the city. He never spent much time out of the cockpit of his trusty Wolfen, so he had pretty bad stamina.

"How the hell do you pull off of all those fancy acrobatics?" Wolf panted while bending over and putting his hands on his knees.

"Some practice," Ace replied, as he bent backwards far enough to touch the back of his heels. "Lots of practice."

A group of seven squads' soldiers went up to the two and saluted. One, a crow, reported, "It's been confirmed that the enemy has pulled out of the city and is retreating, sir! We've won!"

"At ease, soldiers," Wolf grinned. "Finally, some good news."

"Hah, I knew we could beat those humans!" Ace grinned, bending back upright. "Even with their new troops, they're no match for Lylatians, Spades, and mechs united."

Then, ashriek sounded far in the distance, followed by several more. Everyone looked around to find out where they originated.

"Soldier, are you sure that all enemy troops are outside the city?" Wolf asked.

"Positive, sir," the crow replied, and he got out a Hi-Def Display Device and jumped "Whoa, what the hell was that?" Wolf saw it too. A black shape leapt high into the air so fast that he lost sight of it. The soldier continued, "Sir, I think we have an enemy conta-"

The soldier didn't have any time to finish as a pair of gigantic legs crushed him. Wolf's first impulse was that it was a juggernaut tank, but the leg was totally different. It was scaly and had three clawed toes that were spread out finger-like with spacing equal to that of a bird of prey to stabilize something. He looked up and thought he might see a reptilian body, but he gasped in shock of what he saw.

The reptilian legs connected to a metallic body, which was in the shape of a short, flat rectangle. It was about a foot high and was beige-colored. Connected to the body was a neck made of two, long metal pipes with a few wires between them. The head of the creature was also metallic and beige, like the body. It had a flat, square shape, with a blunt, protruding ram in the middle of the head. On top of the head, located in the center, was a powerful photoreceptor dome that appeared sort of like the security cameras found in some stores with an eye-like scope inside of it that was behind a glass slit in the beige dome. On one side of the head was a small radar dish, and on the other, was a strange object that looked like a rocket pod that Wolf couldn't identify. The thing towered one-and-a-half stories high. The ram split into three, toothy maws, revealing a long cable-like object and hung it lazily. After looking at its targets, it let out a loud shriek. _I really hate enemy mechs, _Wolf grimaced.

Everyone started to fire into the creature, and Wolf started blasting his two LMGs, peppering the monstrosity with laser rounds. Bullets pinged, lasers sizzled, and plasma torched, but the creature stayed unmoved. Wolf fired into the creature's reptilian legs. His remaining right eye widened as he saw that they _bled._

"Hey Ace," Wolf turned to the albino, "did you notice that-"

"Yes," Ace grunted. While bullets, lasers, and plasma passed right through the head and body of the mech, the legs sent puffs of red blood when hit. That mech, animal, or whatever it is was half organic and half mechanical.

Fortunately, it acted like a simple animal. It reacted slowly to the barrage of weapon fire and moved even slower towards its designated target. Then, it tried to slam its foot down onto it, but usually missed because the soldier usually got out of the way. Everyone started to get ticked. That thing couldn't kill much anyone, but they couldn't kill it either. Not even Ace's single-hand, armor-piercing weapon could damage it. The only thing they could do was send sparks and puffs of blood into the air.

"Ace, I'm really getting tired of this! Anything exciting gonna happen sooner or later?" Wolf grunted as he rolled out of the way of a crushing stomp from the mech.

The mech then realized that both of them couldn't do anything to each other, so it shrieked into the air. Two more shrieks came from the distance, followed by two more of the mechs landing beside it.

"Dangit, Wolf," Ace shook his head, "how many times have you heard to be careful for what you wish for?!"

The mechs looked at each other, then stood as high as they could and let a spray of static into the air. Wolf's visor filled with white beads, and his left side of vision became distorted for a few seconds. Then two mechs leapt away for other parts of the city, while one remained here. Wolf could tell that something had changed about the mech.

Suddenly, it dashed for a soldier and tried to stomp on it, as usual. When the soldier rolled out of the way, it did a roundhouse kick with its other leg, sending the soldier into a hovercar, which bent and crunched under the force of the kick, sending glass shards everywhere. The body went limp. Everyone dashed for cover, now that the mech had become truly dangerous.

The mech shrieked again, and it didn't even need to see the Landmasters and hover tank with infantry support to know that they were there. It leapt high into the air, dodging several tank shots at the same time, and landed onto a Landmaster, crushing it under its weight and force. The creature then kicked the hover tank into a nearby motel, and the rest of the structure collapsed onto the tank, destroying it. It then followed up with a sweep kick, sending a whole squad of Spades flying in several directions. They were dead before they even reached the peak of their ascension.

A Lylatian armed with a rocket launcher fired at the mech, but it kicked and deflected the projectile into a Landmaster trying to sneak up on it, blowing it apart. Finally, the mech rammed the trooper into a building, splattering the prow of its ram and the side of the construct with blood and gore. The thing was still thirsty for more blood as it licked the material off of its ram.

It didn't need to even look for the snipers- the mech just leapt onto the building, and crushed it beneath its feet, taking the sharpshooters with it. It looked around to make sure it saw all alone, and then gave off another static discharge.

Several thousand meters away, Wolf, Ace, and the rest of the soldiers were hiding in a broken down shop.

"What the hell is going on?" Wolf whispered harshly in order to keep from gaining the thing's attention. "First, it can't kill a fly, and now it just took down a whole platoon and group of armor!"

"Ya' mind telling us what in the name of the gods that was?" Ace growled to a Spade.

"Actually, I was going to ask the same thing, sir," the lieutenant replied.

Wolf started blankly at him for a few seconds, then screamed, "You mean to tell us you don't even know what that thing is?!"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to say, sir!" he responded. "All I know is that that thing's called an Alpha-class mech, and it's like a freaking god of war! This thing is entirely new! When we looked through the intel on the ship we took over, we just found the name of the mech mentioned!"

Ace observed the Alpha mech as it jumped into the air, came back down with a burning assault copter in its jaws, and then spit it out. It let out another static discharge, followed by several more around the city.

"From what we just saw," Ace began, "I believe that that thing has networked intelligence, and a huge capacity for adapting to new situations."

"In English, smartass," Wolf grumbled.

"Basically," Ace explained, "the Alpha mechs have an extremely acute ability to adapt, and is able to share their acquired knowledge and combat experiences to other mechs in the area via static discharges. That way, they can be almost invincible as they know the best tactics there are to know."

"I said in English!" Wolf screamed.

"The mechs have a big brain and can share their knowledge with a zappy, poofy poof," Ace spoke in a childish accent, then returned to a more serious, angry tone. "Easy enough for you?"

A gecko held up an arm, and everyone silenced themselves. The Alpha mech stepped by and lowered its head adjacent, but not toward, to the shop. The soldiers and Spades hid behind objects in the building, with Wolf hiding behind the transaction counter. He peeked to the side and saw the gigantic head of the mech. Its domed camera lens quickly turned toward him and focused.

Wolf cursed as the mech broke through the glass wall and rammed him against the wall. Through his half-conscious mind, he saw the mech starting a rampage inside of the shop. It knocked a large metal bar down, which hit Wolf squarely on the forehead. His vision became cloudy before he lost all consciousness.

* * *

Adder and three other troops, one Spade radio operator, a dolphin corporal with an LMG, and German shepherd armed with an anti-tank rocket, scattered down the street, each taking a turn scouting ahead and signaling that it was clear. As they neared Fifth Street, the veteran held up a hand. The troops behind him halted in their tracks. The old snake flickered out his forked tongue and his slit-like eyes narrowed.

"I smell something…strange…," Adder muttered, "Not like oil, but like-"

He was interrupted by a scream and a Spade was sent flying into a garbage truck next to him, dead. The serpent pointed four of his fingers at his snout, and the rocket trooper nodded. The German shepherd went forward and peeked around the corner. He signaled back. One enemy contact. A loud ascending moan filled everyone's ears. An Honor Guard.

Everyone got in defensive positions and waited for the mech to get in their sights. From the Spades, they already knew that the mech had sensitive neck joints. They waited for a few seconds. In all of its towering glory, the two-and-a-half story tall mech made its grand entrance.

Its humongous tri-legs made medium-sized craters in the ground as it made its way down the street. Unfortunately, the humans had revised the mech's weakness and covered the neck with a circular collar-like object. Adder and the rest of the squad fired into the mech, but it merely jumped over them.

The four soldiers looked at the mech as it continued down the road. The dolphin asked, "Sir, aren't honor guard mechs supposed to confront anything it sees as a threat, and I mean anything?"

"I don't know corporal, I don't know," Adder grimly replied. "Something's wrong here…" Suddenly, it hit him.

"Radio Op, call squad forty-seven and ask what's going on, NOW!" he ordered. The Spade put one arm to his diamond-shaped head and called the squad guarding the collapsed skyscrapers.

"Squad forty-seven, squad forty-seven, this is patrol group six, do you copy?" the Spade asked.

A panicked voice that sounded even more frantic because of the static answered, "This is squad forty-seven! We're under attack by some Honor Guard mechs! Dang! New contact at eight o'clock! Eight o'clock high! AAAAUUUUUGGGH!" Adder could hear the flesh being ripped off and the bones cracked even through the bad reception.

The Spade removed his arm from his head and spoke, "Sir, we've lost contact with squad forty-seven."

Adder closed his eyes, and spoke, "Squad, get moving for the Harvester's prison, double time! Go, go, go!" The troops took off for Peking Avenue, hoping that they would get there in time. When they arrived after what seemed to be an eternity, they were shocked. Not one, but seven Honor Guards were slashing and blasting away at a collapsed skyscraper that served as part of the Harvester's prison.

"Sir, they're trying to free the Harvester!" the rocket trooper exclaimed.

Adder cursed, then ordered, "Rocket trooper, take those things down! I don't care if they have protected necks now; fire away!" As the rocket trooper began trying to aim at the small neck joints, he turned to the Spade and ordered, "You! Call in a rocket strike!" Then he turned to the dolphin, "And you, you're a sharpshooter, right? You know what to do." Instead, the dolphin went behind the rocket trooper.

"Corporal, you're ignoring a direct order! Corporal!"

The dolphin's face flickered like static a few times.

"C-corporal?"

The dolphin flickered into nothingness and was replaced by a monstrous, four-legged Hunter armed with a drill on its right arm and a large directed plasma cannon on the left. As the rocket trooper turned around to see what was going on, it roared, paralyzing the dog with fear.

Adder and the Spade RO began firing into the Hunter with little effect. The rocket trooper tried to get away, but it was too late. The Hunter's drill started up with an ascending whine and dug it into the soldiers chest and out through the back. The poor dog didn't even have any time to scream before he died.

The Hunter flung the lifeless body away and disappeared. Adder and the Spade looked around, searching for a shadow on the walls or ground. They found none. Then the Hunter materialized above the Spade and landed on the supersoldier, then impaled him with its four, blunt legs.

"Holy crap," Adder cursed.

The Hunter growled and heaved up the DP cannon. An ascending whistle filled his ears as Adder performed a combat roll just in time. Sound seemed to evaporate from the world as a magnificent roar equal to that of a thousand electronic guitar strums temporarily deafened him even with the lack of external ears. A blue beam of pure plasma erupted from the barrel and continued to fire as Adder frantically tried to dodge it. After the cannon exhausted itself and overheated, he fired three shotgun sluggers into it, which came to be a grand total of forty-eight bullets. The Hunter staggered backwards, trying to recover. Adder dared to turn around and he gasped from the amount of destruction caused by the DP cannon.

The whole section of the block was nothing but destruction. The concrete sidewalk behind him was liquefied, the road's tar now bubbled from the intense heat, the building behind him now had a gaping scar in it that continued almost end to end of the structure with orange edges that were singed by the inferno, and the garden of a nearby house had been turned to bubbling mud. Encountering a weapon of this kind of firepower wielded by a biogenetically-altered soldier was not on top of Adder's wish list.

Adder turned around to face the Hunter, but it was gone…again. Only one thing could stop it now. Adder removed the shells inside his shotgun, and pulled two gray ones from his belt. They were two of his last three black powder shotgun shells he had. The serpent shoved them into the slot and pulled and pushed the loader. He waited and waited. And waited. Then he saw the rippling air caused by the heat from G-diffuser. He aimed down the sight and fired.

The shot hit straight and true. The Hunter dropped out of the sky like how a rock would sink to the bottom of a pail. He had managed to hit the monster in the head, bursting one of its bulbous eyes. The Hunter started to make its way toward Adder and started to blindly swing its arms at the pit viper-cobra hybrid. Adder ducked and sidestepped to avoid getting hit by one, but a flailing leg sent him flying several dozen meters through a glass window and into the back of the store with a loud thud.

His body screamed in pain, and he tried in vain to get to his feet but couldn't find the strength. Adder then noticed that he lost his shotgun. Not only had he lost his last memento of his father, but his only effective weapon as well. He found it a few feet away, and was about to crawl over to it, but the Hunter crashed through the glass window, sending even more shards onto the floor. It had finally recovered from the pain of the heavy sluggers and wanted revenge.

It started up its drill and flung it towards Adder, who blocked its pointy tip with the palm of his mechanical left hand. The pain receptors in it screamed with agony as the drill bore all the way through the hand. He was pressed down against the floor now, trying to push away the drill, but it was slowly making its way towards his chest. The Hunter was just too strong, and the tip finally reached his chest.

Even more pain erupted into his body, and Adder couldn't take it anymore. He screamed for one of the first times in a long time out of sheer pain. The drill hadn't made it that far, but with the glass shards cutting up his back, the soreness of the kick and crash, and the piercing of his mechanical hand and now his chest was just too much.

Suddenly, several carbine shots sounded off, and puffs of yellow blood erupted from the side of the Hunter. It staggered away, and the drill was pulled out of the serpent leader's chest, but took the rest of his mechanical hand, and part of the wrist away with it. Then, Cris leapt into the store and continued pepper the Hunter with bullets, but hadn't killed it yet.

Adder finally got the shotgun, and with one hand, fired the last black powder slug into the Hunter. This time, the heavy ballistics slugs blew apart a large portion of its lower chest, sending yellow blood everywhere. It slumped against the wall, and several more carbine slugs to the head from Cris killed it off.

Cris went up to him and offered him a hand. Adder looked from it to the face of the white-furred vulpine, then accepted it.

"Thank you, Cristine," Adder wheezed.

"It's nothing, and please, call me Cris. Are you alright?" the white vixen asked as she propped up Adder against her side and they began walking out of the broken-down store.

Adder checked his wound and tried to move his left arm, but couldn't. He answered, "Well, my left arm is now useless, and my chest wound's kinda deep," he wheezed and gasped from the pain each breath brought him. "Ah! Probably shattered a few ribs."

"We need to get you to a medic, they-"

"No," Adder held up his hand. "I've learned to ignore pain, to a certain extent. I-I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Cris cocked a worried eyebrow.

"Positive, Cristine," Adder nodded.

"Cris," she rolled her eyes.

"Fine."

As the two began making their way down the street, Adder noticed that this was the closest that he had ever gotten to a woman for an extremely long time. Ever since his mother had been executed, he had never been so close to one of the female gender. He sighed, and put the thought away. He got off of Cris's shoulder and spoke, "Well, now that I only got one good arm, I might as well take out an old friend."

He holstered the shotgun and pulled out his laser magnum revolver.

"You sure you're not rusty with that?" Cris queried.

Adder twirled it several times through the air, caught it, then shot to the right. A Hunter dropped dead to the ground with a medium-sized hole in its head.

"Positive, Cristine," he smiled, totted the gun once more, and blew the acrid smoke off of the barrel.

"_Cris._"

"Whatever."

* * *

* * *

Part 5 of 6, and I'm still churning out new enemies! Will I ever give up?

...No.

Anyways, still more fighting here with this part and...Wait, do I sense something going on between Adder and Cris? Hm...I wonder...


	15. Chapter 10, Part 6: Dark Echoes from the

Chapter 10, Part 6: Dark Echoes from the Past

Krystal followed closely behind Xamuros, his two other Spades, and Fox, keeping one hand ready for using telepathy if necessary, and one hand in the trigger guard of her Chantellerault.

The Chantellerault, a Katinan light machine gun known for its slightly bent design, was made to be held on the shoulder via clamp. This way, it was dual-wieldable, and you could still use the sight of the LMG, which was located on the left side. Unfortunately, it used bullets, which were loaded on the top of the weapon in a forty-five bullet clip. However, it fired in a semi-automatic three-round burst, making it very accurate, if less useful in close range. That made the weapon able to fire fifteen times for every full clip.

The extra ammunition she had to carry weighed her down a little bit, but due to the lightweight LMG, she still felt as if she were only carrying a sniper rifle, which is about standard weight for a soldier to carry.

"Krystal," Fox whispered. She snapped her head up. Her husband made a quick point with one hand towards the corner of a building- the squad sign for "scout ahead". Krystal nodded in affirmative, and she made her way to the corner and peeked around the side. She saw several weapons- carbines, SMGs, and assault rifles with grenade launchers. There was nothing out of the ordinary about that. The thing was, they were floating in midair and were moving around.

Krystal turned back to the other four and made a horizontal slashing motion several times across her eyes. The others understood. There were cloaked humans up ahead, and lots of them.

Xamuros tapped his lower right arm twice with his upper right- it was time to use an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) grenade.

Krystal snatched one off of her belt and pulled the ring. Then, she chucked it into the middle of the other street. The humans tried to run away, and she put two fingers to her forehead. The grenade wobbled a little, then rose in the air and flew towards the humans. With a small _zap_, and a little fuzz on her HUD, she knew that the grenade had detonated, hopefully impairing the cloaked humans' active camouflage.

Xamuros leaned around the corner of the building and provided covering fire with his plasma SMG, cutting down two now-visible humans and made it so the rest kept their head downs. While this happened, the rest went into the street and found cover. Then they provided covering fire of their own while Xamuros went to find more suitable cover. He left just in time- a grenade from one of the humans' launchers blew away the corner of the building, sending pieces of bricks everywhere.

Krystal, now lying in a prone position behind a low picket fence, laid accurate fire from her Chantellerault. Since plasma fire only sizzled at organic objects- not piercing them- she was relatively safe behind the wood of the fence.

The firefight was taking quite a bit of time. Both sides were dug in pretty well, and no one had taken any loses since Xamuros first laid covering fire, minus the death of the soldier with the grenade launcher. Then, Krystal remembered something.

"Fox," she shouted over the buzzing of the humans' plasma fire, "fire your plasma pistol through that hovercar!"

He nodded, and fired five bolts of plasma through his cover (literally through, since plasma doesn't affect inorganic objects) and through the hovercar.

While the car itself wasn't affected, the plasma was hot enough to light a fire in the fuel tank, causing the vehicle to explode, killing two nearby humans. Then, Krystal used pyrokinesis to control the explosion towards the rest of the humans, blowing them away in smoking heaps. Manipulating fire with pyrokinesis was much easier than using it to generate fire and then manipulate it.

Krystal pulled back the action, removed her current clip, loaded in a fresh clip, slammed it on top to make sure it was in, and then flicked the action back into place. The whole firefight had taken just over five minutes.

Xamuros stood up from his cover- a sizzling tree- and scanned the area to make sure they were safe. After a few moments, he nodded, and the five pressed onwards.

Then, Krystal felt a weird fiery sensation inside her mind. She signaled for everyone to wait, and put a hand to her temple. The sensation became a little clearer, now in the shape of a rod with a blunt end…that was streaking towards them.

"INCOMING!" Krystal screamed. Everyone leapt out of the way as a gigantic, brownish, pod-like structure impacted into the ground near them, followed with several more. Krystal and the others held their weapons ready for anything that would emerge from the pods. They didn't need to wait that long.

The pods split open, each revealing a folded-up Alpha mech inside, which released a static discharge as soon as it unfolded itself. A platoon of fifteen operational Alpha mechs had been sent into the battlefield in seconds. A lone mech turned towards the squad and shrieked, making each and every one of the others do the same.

"Aw, crap, RETREAT!" Xamuros ordered. The Spades converted into Longswords, and the vulpines got onto a separate Spade. Even as they sped through the city streets, the mechs used their intelligence to cut them off- jumping over several blocks, breaking through a building in front of the fleeing troops, or some other way- each and every time. They were running out of places to escape, and it would be a matter of seconds before they were completely trapped. It looked hopeless.

Suddenly, a few dark blue streaks of lasers sounded out, and one Alpha mech was knocked over, but not killed. Then, the Black Rose sped overhead, attracting the attention of seven Alpha mechs, leaving the remaining eight behind.

_Panther will do anything to save the ladies, won't he?_ Krystal thought. The Longswords now had a clear getaway, and left the Alpha mechs behind. After getting quite close to Central Park, which was now a mess of wilted plants, dead grass, and lifeless trees from the siphoning, the foxes dismounted, and the Longswords reverted back into bipedal form.

Xamuros gazed back at the remaining Alpha mechs, now a way's back.

"Just a small platoon of that size could devastate an entire city," he thought out aloud, then turned to the rest of the squad. "If the humans had enough resources to create an entire army of them, then all hope is lost."

"Then what are we supposed to do now?" Fox asked.

"We need to find a way to take those mechs out of commission," the field master answered. "What do we know about that kind of mech that we can use to our advantage?"

Just then, an Alpha mech landed right next to the group, along with the wreckage of a Landmaster in its maws. It then dropped the tank and let out another static discharge, then faced the group.

The Spade officer fired into the mech with little effect. It responded by lashing out a leg and grabbing the supersoldier by the head while balancing on the other leg. With enormous force, it flung the trooper into the Spade private, killing both instantly.

"Scatter!" Fox screamed. Krystal leapt over a park bench, somersaulted upon landing on the ground, and continued to run away from the mech. She got behind a hovertruck and paused to catch her breath. Then, she dared to peek around the side of the vehicle.

Fox was being pursued by the Alpha mech, and was unable to outrun the monstrosity. He was kicked hard into the ground, and the mech was preparing for an ending blow.

"Fox! No!" Krystal exclaimed. She lashed out her arm, and several multicolored electric neutrinos unexpectedly rushed out from her palm. The neutrinos enveloped the mech, which tried to shake them off. The mech let out a final static discharge, then doubled over and fell to the ground.

Krystal rushed over to Fox and began peppering him with concerned statements such as, "Are you okay? That wound looks serious. Stay calm, you'll be alright."

"Krystal, babe," Fox held up a hand, "I'm fine, okay? Jeez, you don't have to act like this every time I'm hit."

"Sorry," she blushed, "I can't help but be worried. Hey, where's Xamuros?"

"Over…here…"

The two kitsunes looked over at the source of the voice, and there he was, down on the ground…again.

"This happens _way_ too often," he groaned as he heaved himself up, then observed the dead mech. "Wow. I didn't know you could do that."

"Neither did I," Krystal shrugged. "I guess it's a new type of electrokinesis, if there's even a word for it."

"Interesting…an electrical attack caused it to short out…," Xamuros trailed off, "Krystal, I want you to electrocute me."

Krystal and Fox both stared at him, mouths agape.

"Don't jump to conclusions," Xamuros spoke sternly. "These mechs are vulnerable to electrical attacks because they rely on a networked intelligence. By amplifying the magnitude of your electrokinesis with my radio jammer-"

"-we can send an electrical charge onto that network that will kill or impair every Alpha mech in the city!" Krystal exclaimed, finishing his sentence. "Xamuros, you're brilliant!"

"The only problem is," Fox frowned, "is that you need to find the correct frequency of the network and that you'll be risking frying yourself."

"My shields should be able to take the damage," Xamuros acknowledged, "but yes, we need to confirm the frequency of the network. And that," He motioned toward the rest of the city, "is why we need to find a live mech and make it release a static discharge."

"You mean get up close with one of those things?" Krystal grimaced, "Oh, you better be right about this."

"I will," Xamuros nodded, "Now let's find an Al-"

Just then, a loud crash rang out, and the trio wheeled around to its location.

"Oh gods, please don't be it, please don't be it…," Krystal closed her eyes. Several loud moans broke through the afternoon. Then, it was followed by a loud, descending gasping sound.

"It's it," Xamuros lowered his head. "The Harvester's gotten free."

And there wasn't just a Harvester, but an entourage of supporting units as well. Three Honor Guard mechs flanked both sides of the machine, along with several spider tanks… and three juggernaut tanks. Even worse, they were heading towards the Venom City Resort… and they were directly in front of the incoming threat.

"Oh, damn," Fox gasped. "The Harvester and Honor Guards were bad enough, but with the three-" Then, several more juggernaut tanks were airdropped around the city, "-nine juggernaut tanks-"

"-our chances of winning this battle is point zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-one percent," Xamuros finished. "This battle is over. We've no option but to retreat back to the resort. Get on!" He converted into the Longsword, and the couple mounted up.

The Longsword zoomed through the streets at top speed, so that they reached the resort in a few minutes. The three got inside, and made their way through the rush of troops doing their now-hurried tasks to room 025. Every one of the team members was inside.

"- so our only option is-guys!" everyone wheeled around to face the arriving trio.

Immediately, Marcus and Tallon ran up and the family embraced, happy that they were all okay.

"Where's Wolf?" Fox asked.

"Huh? Oh, he's down over there," Ace pointed to the gray-furred lupine lying down in the corner of the room, "I tried waking him up, but couldn't."

Adder knelt down over him and spoke to everyone, "To everyone else, please don't try this." And with that, he brought his fist down on Wolf's chest.

"YOW!" Wolf yelped as he arched up in pain. "Whu? What?" He looked directly at Adder, "Don't do that! You know that freaking hurts! Hey, Ace, how'd you stop the mech?"

"Chucked an EMP grenade at it," Ace smiled. "Worked like a charm!"

"Enough, everyone," General Pepper spoke. "I SAID ENOUGH! QUIET!" A hush filled the room, "Thank you, and now let's get down to brass-tacks.

"First, our current situation," the bloodhound started. "The Harvester has gotten free," Adder grimaced and lowered his head at this, "Alpha mechs are slaughtering our troops," Xamuros winced, "And we are heavily outnumbered, and most likely outmatched, by the enemy forces now within the city. Even worse it that more enemy reinforcements are en route for the city. The humans are really serious about their all-out assault.

"Second, our options," he continued. "We could try to counterattack, but we'll be slaughtered. We could try to surprise the enemy, but I doubt we'll succeed. We could try to bomb this city with the enemy in it, but that totally ruins the purpose of our mission here. Our only option…is to evacuate the city." Everyone lowered their heads. The only emotion Krystal could sense filling the room now was distress.

"Third, how we are going to achieve that objective," Pepper pressed on. "Well, we already have transport ships inbound, but they'll only be able to carry off two-thirds of our troops and armor away. The rest will have to get out by themselves. I'm afraid that would be everyone in this hotel, including us."

"Then where are we going to fall back to?" Falco asked, for the first time Krystal has ever seen, thinking rationally.

"Here would be a good location," Halcyon held up a small map of the surrounding area. A blinking red dot showed the evac location- a deep gorge, "It is far enough from the city so that we can get out with ease and will not attract attention. I have already contacted ROB to pick us up with the _Dreadnought_."

"Well, that's that," General Pepper sighed. "Now I want you all to get in pairs. Xamuros divide us up as you see fit."

The supersoldier quickly calculated the best possible way to separate them. He ordered, "Wolf and Brutus," The pair smiled at each other.

"Falco and Aloysius," The blue bird frowned a little, and the bat stayed unmoved.

"Cris and…sorry… Panther," The white fox looked at the wildcat, who was smiling. She massaged her temples.

"General Pepper, you're with me," The dog nodded.

"Halcyon, you go with Ace," Both nodded resolutely.

"Krystal, I'm sorry to separate you, but you go with Leon," She understood, and Leon sighed.

"Tallon and Marcus," The two brothers grinned at each other.

"and Fox and Adder."

"Dismissed," Pepper stood up, "I wish for you to all return safely. Good luck, comrades." Slowly, the pairs hurried out of the room.

Leon crept up to Krystal and spoke, "I know it's hard to be separated from him. Just do it, and you'll get back with him in no time."

She nodded, and they hurried out of the room.

* * *

Fox and Adder slowly made their way to the city walls. Mayhem was everywhere, even though most of the troops were just evacuating. Most had been drafted into the army without training simply because of the need for more troops. While it did raise the amount of operational soldiers, it did cause for everyone to be confused about what to do and where to go. The officers and higher-ranking officials were having problems keeping everybody orderly. As they pushed their way through the crowd, Fox noticed Adder's wound and damaged left arm.

"Adder! You're hurt!" Fox exclaimed.

"I know, I know," the serpent replied, "I'll be fine. The only thing I can't stand right now is this damn crowd. Alright, everyone, stop shoving! I SAID STOP SHOVING!"

Everyone fell quiet and didn't move.

"Now listen to the officers so that you'll actually be able to get out of this city alive!" he ordered. The now-orderly crowd now gave the pair a chance to get out of the city. That's when the massacre started.

A flotilla of Drones appeared out of nowhere and fired into the crowd, making things even more rowdy than before. Black streaks and fried skeletons began to fill the streets.

"Aw, crap," Adder cursed. He pulled out his laser magnum and fired two shots. The first burst the shield of a Drone, and the other punched a three-inch wide hole in it, causing it to explode in the air. The rest of the Drones looked right at him.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done that," the serpent grimaced.

"Ya think?" Fox raised an eyebrow. "Now run!"

The pair sprinted for the city walls as fast as they could. Three Drones pursued them, but they were running too fast for the mechs to target efficiently. The street around them was heated into globs of molten tar as the Drones attempted to disintegrate them, but they ran on. Adrenaline started to now pump into Fox's brain, and he ran even faster. A small bit of molten tar sizzled against his right calf, but he ran on with Adder at his side.

At last, the pair made it to the city wall. Salvation was in sight, and Fox clambered up the side. His smile quickly disappeared.

The gigantic hole that was blown into the ground was still there. And there was no way across. To make matters even worse, the Drones caught up with them.

"Fox, I can get you across," Adder spoke, "but it'll hurt. A lot."

"Got any other ideas?" Fox asked.

"Nope," Adder replied. "Brace yourself, and hope you don't get any broken ribs." And with that, he kicked Fox right in the gut.

With a normal leg, Fox would have just fallen to his death in the gaping fissure. But with Adder's mechanical legs, he sailed all the way across it and on the other side with a loud grunt. Fox watched in dismay as the Drones took aim at Adder, who was still on the other side.

The Drones fired first, but Adder seemed to effortlessly sidestep the shots, one by one. He rolled to the right, firing two magnum slugs into a Drone, knocking it out of the air and into the gorge.

The remaining two fired their Dark Energy Bolt Cannons again, but Adder, with amazing flexibility and balance, leaned back on his shins and dodged both. He then rewarded the left Drone with two shots to the side, making it loose balance and collide with the other hovering mech, making both explode. Then Adder simply leapt across the gorge without effort.

"Where'd you learn to do all that?" Fox asked incredulously as Adder heaved him to his feet.

"Ace," he replied. "You should really stretch and exercise with him sometime- it works wonders."

"Those were sweet moves!" Fox exclaimed.

"Yeah," Adder groaned, "but I think I cracked my spine. Ooh, I'll be feeling that tomorrow…"

The two leaders pressed on towards the designated location for the rendezvous at a brisk pace. The landscape of Venom had long become barren and desolate, much like as it used to be, due to the siphoning. The land had become cracked under the immense heat from the afternoon Solar, and the only things that broke the monotony of the wasteland were occasional craggy peaks or plateaus. If they got lost, they would be dead for certain.

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Fox cocked an eyebrow at Adder.

"Positive," Adder flicked his forked tongue out. "I can smell the distinct odor of the _Dreadnought_'s fuel. It's a few miles up ahead."

"Well, I just hope you're right about this," said Fox.

Adder led the way, with Fox close behind. Suddenly, Adder snapped his head up, and flicked his tongue out for a few times.

"I know that smell…," he muttered. The green serpent started toward the right.

"Wait! Adder!" Fox shouted at him as he slowly veered away from the objective, "We're supposed to meet up with the others!" After seeing that Adder still headed away from him, he cursed and followed him anyway.

_What's up with him? _Fox thought. _It isn't like him to ignore direct orders, especially from Supreme General Pepper himself!_

The pair continued onwards and away from the extraction point. Fox began to get worried that they might end up lost and die out here in the wasteland. Of course, he still decided to follow Adder anyway, for the sake of survival in numbers.

"Adder? Where exactly are we headed?" Fox inquired with growing concern. Adder didn't even seem to hear him at all- he just continued forward.

After about half-a-mile, the two came up to a steep incline with poor footing. Fox slipped every few steps, although Adder never faltered._ Strange…it's as if he's intent on getting somewhere…_ he thought. The two commandos reached the peak on the incline.

Fox gasped. In front of him were what seemed to be acres of trees. Or at least, what used to be trees. The soil had become devoid of the ability to produce life, resulting in the death of the hundreds, possibly thousands of trees once here.

"I knew it," Adder whispered, "The Bastogne Woods…" Fox couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Are you saying," Fox's eyes widened now, "that this used to be Venom's forests?" The Bastogne Woods had once enveloped a one-hundred-twenty-eighth of Venom. Though it didn't sound like it, that was a lot of Venom's surface.

Fox looked back to the remnants of the well-known forests. The siphoning facilities of Venom had only been on the planet for a few weeks, and they've already killed off nearly eighty percent of the planet's foliage.

"Those putrid humans may have withered these woods, but the scent never falters," Adder grimaced, "And if we're here, then…"

Adder leapt to the bottom of the forest with little effort, while Fox slid down on from the hill much like a surfer. The snake ran now, intent on looking for something Fox didn't know about.

"Hey! Wait up!" Fox huffed in trying to keep up with Adder's run. After running through a mess of dead trees and reaching the border of the land, then continuing back into the wasteland, Adder finally halted in his tracks.

"Just what the hell are you looking for?!" Fox screamed.

Adder simply pointed forward, and replied, "That."

Fox squinted and was able to see some sort of structure. The two slowly walked toward the construct. As they neared it, several more of the structures began to pop up against the horizon.

With a few minutes of slow walking and silence, they entered some sort of group of these structures. Each stone construct was of a cubed shape, and were all one-story tall. Each had an arched entryway with a few hastily-made, lopsided windows cut into the sides, and a straw roof. The thing was, the structures were _houses_. They dotted the desert in groups of four, and the majority of them were either caved in, demolished, reduced to rubble, or completely destroyed. The air suddenly filled with the stench of decay, and the wind stopped blowing. Even creepier was the fact that each house had at least one slab of stone placed in the ground in front of the doorway. If a house had two or more, they were exactly a foot apart from one another. As the two continued toward the center of the eerie community, Adder lost his emotion and his slit-like eyes narrowed slightly. Fox didn't dare talk to him.

The two eventually made it to the center of the community. There, a circular hut with a diameter of several meters was, and in front of the doorway was a single slab of stone. Adder walked up to it, and fell to his knees.

"Do you know where we are, Fox?" Adder asked in an emotionless voice. "Read the words on the tablet, and you will understand."

Fox read the slab, which had letters crudely carved into it:

Harrison McBannon

A judicious, strong leader

And a loving father

Rest in peace

I will avenge you

With one arm, Adder unsheathed his ritualistic dagger, and traced a rune onto the ground beneath the slab similar to the one he cut into his chest in his daily ritual. After finishing the rune, he placed the blade at the foot of the slab, and placed the scabbard at the bottom of the rune. Those stone objects weren't slabs- they were gravestones. Fox finally understood where Adder had led him to.

"I haven't been here for nearly fifty years, Fox," Adder whispered. Fox then realized that the snake was crying- not sobbing or wailing- but crying.

"So…this was your birthplace?" Fox asked. "Your village?"

"Yes. You already know what happened. But now you can experience the horrors of war and discrimination for yourself. Brutus may have told you what happened, but there was more to it.

"You weren't born yet during that time- the time when we serpents were a hated people. You know that some of us fled from the persecution of the modern cities to pursue a happier lifestyle in the wilderness. Here, my family and others were able to escape the oppression…we had a simple lifestyle, but we were happy- happy that we were able to be free.

"Then, well, you know the rest. I tried my best to stop the execution, but I was too late. If they were another species, they would have just been left as prisoners or war. But back then, snakes of all kind were worthless than dirt in the eyes of everyone else. I was able to kill every last jailer inside the concentration camp, but the commander had fled before I could kill him."

He turned to Fox, eyes bloodshot and tears streaming down his face and cried, "Do you know what it feels like to be hated to your guts?" He stood now and walked towards Fox, who was backing away slowly, "Do you know what it feels like to have to bury your friends and family with your own hands- each and every forty-seven of the residents here? Do you know what it feels like to have felt no sympathy from others for the next seven years? Do you know how it feels?" Adder and Fox stopped moving.

"N-no," Fox shakily replied.

"It feels as if you were dead yourself," Adder's face now became taut, and no more tears fell down his cheeks. "No one to turn to for help! No house of religion to seek salvation! Nothing to stop the pain that I experienced! I almost wanted to die!"

"What stopped you?"

"A chance for vengeance. I knew the face of the murderer, that fiend."

"Who?"

Adder's eyes narrowed, "Andrew…Oikonny. At the time, your father was looking for an additional teammate. He found me. Unlike most people, he saw the world through eyes unclouded by hatred or discrimination- uncorrupted by the oppressive beliefs of the time. It didn't matter to him how you looked like or your social status- only character mattered to him. Through him, I sought to find Oikonny…and kill him. Unfortunately, James…died before I had the chance…and I, not he himself, was at fault."

"How did it happen?" Fox asked, now surprised from the fact that his father's death was Adder's fault, anger starting to gather in his voice. "How did he die? Tell me!"

"He and I were to be decoys to allow Peppy and Wolf to escape. After they had a clear way out, we were to fall back alongside them. The good news was that Andross was overconfident and we escaped. The bad news was that we, or rather I, left him unchecked. He took down James's arwing…and him as well. I narrowly escaped, with the loss of all except one limb.

"After my rehabilitation, and the division of the team, my actions during my time with the original Star Fox attracted attention from the military. Although it was illegal until recently for snakes to enlist in the army, I was one of the few exceptions.

"I trained to the best of my ability, and I surpassed everyone's expectations. Despite intense discrimination, I became a special operations commando. I eventually became part of a three-man squad with Brutus and Ace. We later went on to create our team as you know it."

"So," Fox spoke, "you were the cause of my father's death?"

"Yes," Adder confirmed solemnly. "I was careless, and I was too incompetent to be able to fix my mistakes. I only ask one thing out of you Fox- your sympathy. I apologize for causing your father's death. He was as much a father to me as he was yours…He took me in regardless of everyone else's opinions, and I respect him for that… Will you accept…my…apology?"

Fox was about to answer, "No," but he thought about it. He looked at Adder. At first, the only thing he saw was a fool who caused his great father's death, but then he saw something else. What Fox saw was an old, war-torn snake who has faced discrimination from many people. Adder was nothing more than a broken veteran of war's horrors who sought to end all the suffering- the suffering of his people and from the humans' oppression.

Fox finally answered, "Do humans go crap in the woods when nobody's lookin'?"

"That's a yes, then," Adder smiled. "Thank you."

"So this is really it, then," Fox sighed. "You're the last of your bloodline."

"Yes," Adder nodded. "I've said it before- I fight for the sake of my people's eventual freedom from oppression and for vengeance against Oikonny. Seems that you beat me to the punch, though."

Fox remembered how the ignorant ape had been blown out of the sky during the Aparoid War, smiling at the monkey's last words- "The new emperor- Andrew Oikon-" and that's when he was blown up by an aparoid- "Uncle Androsssss!"

"Yeah," Fox said, "now let's meet up with the rest of the teams. They must be as worried as-" A long moan echoed several times in the distance.

"No," Adder's smile vanished. "Not here. Please, not here!"

The two rolled out of the way as an Honor Guard mech landed on the ground from its leap, crushing Adder's old hut along with it.

"You know what?" Adder growled, "You and your dang human masters can all burn in hell!"

The Honor Guard mech seemed to smile with its mandibles before opening them up. A long, thin purplish beam lit the ground in front of Adder up, making it turn orange from the heat. The beam then intensified, causing a massive explosion that sent Adder flying through that air and into a house's remaining wall. Now both finally knew what the collar-like object protecting the mech's neck was also used for- ammunition for its new particle beam cannon that took the place of its original plasma torpedo launcher.

Particle beams fired much like a laser sight at first, not doing much damage. However, the beam intensifies in few seconds after, giving the user enough time to aim it with the weaker version. This gave the beam high accuracy and high damage. If this weapon had any disadvantage, it would be its long recharge time. But for an Honor Guard mech and its multitude of weapons, that wouldn't be a problem.

Fox fired into the monster while Adder recovered, dodging a few heavy blows while doing so. Both concentrated their fire at the collar in hopes of exposing the mech's vulnerable neck, but the collar just merely made the lasers ricochet off of its reflective armor. With that new addition to the Honor Guard, it now became essentially invincible. The only thing Fox and Adder could do was to just try and avoid its attacks and watch it start leveling the village into the dust. And even if they did try to run, they wouldn't get too far.

Then, a missile streaked out of nowhere and struck the Honor Guard mech, making it fall into a building. Fox looked for the source and found the _Dreadnought_.

Now that the mothership was actually far away enough to be able to see what it looked like, Fox was finally able to truly grasp how large it was. At least a few kilometers long and half a mile wide, the teams' crimson-colored ship yielded an I-shape, with each of the horizontal lines forming either the bow or stern of the ship, with the bow being a little bit narrower.

The two soldiers ran away from the mech, which was now getting up from the ground. It fired a particle beam and several directed energy bursts, but were quickly rewarded with even more missiles, which started blowing off huge chunks of the mech's armor.

After several salvos of missiles, the mech was nothing more than a slowly dying robot without any arms. After Fox and Adder reached the outside of the village, Adder fired a single magnum laser into its unarmored collar.

The energy inside of the collar gave off a magnificent roar as the whole mech and the rest of the village were engulfed in a gigantic violet-colored plume of fire. When the explosion died, the only things left of the village were a few boulders and broken gravestones. Adder's cheeks became wet with streaking tears.

Fox put a hand on his shoulder and spoke, "We did what we had to do. Rather destroy the village than have something to be used as a siphoning area."

Adder slowly nodded, "Yes, but now, let's just get back to the ship. Everyone's waiting for us."

* * *

Fox felt terrible after getting back on board, even through Krystal's futile attempts to cheer him up. The teams were located in the control room, where the three teams were, along with the addition of General Halcyon, Field Master Xamuros, and Supreme General Pepper.

"Well, time for debriefing," Pepper began. "We all know that we have just lost a key battle. And with that, the humans have gained another area to use as a construction site for their facilities. However, just stopping the humans there was not our real objective."

"What?!" Wolf exclaimed. "You're telling us that we fought that battle for absolutely no real reason?"

"Of course not, Wolf," the general replied calmly. "In fact, only Halcyon, Xamuros, and I were privy to the true nature of this battle."

"Which would be…," Falco asked.

"Eavesdropping into the enemy communications for intel," Halcyon answered.

"Did you discover anything of vital importance?"

Xamuros nodded and spun his head around and replied, "The location of the humans' base of operations."

* * *

Lord Iradanus was seated in his office, sipping away at his late afternoon coffee when an officer entered through the doors to his room and kneeled.

He spun around in his chair and ordered, "Rise. What is the nature of your presence here?"

The young officer replied, "We have received two radio transmissions from Eagle Company, my lord. The first is that they've captured Venom City. With that, we have control over two-thirds of the planet."

"Good," Iradanus raised an eyebrow. "And the other transmission?"

"It seems that they've found a bug in our comm network."

"And this is of vital importance for you to see me, why? Just tell the engineers to quarantine then delete it like they're supposed to."

"My lord, the bug was from the Lylatians and it was downloading our transmissions history."

Iradanus was silent for a few seconds, and then asked, "Did they discover anything that we covet?"

"They've discovered the location to The Facility, my lord."

Iradanus slowly smiled, "Then this could work out in our favor. Let them arrive. We'll give our guests a warm welcome. Dismissed."

* * *

The conclusion of chapter 6. We get into a little more detail on Adder's past, and we also see the Lylatians' true intentions behind the mission.

And how it completely works for the humans instead.

Stay tuned for chapter 11...where things get incredibly bloody and gory.


	16. Chapter 11, Part 1: Research Facility Ga

Chapter 11, Part 1: Research Facility Gamma

February 4, 2362

0230 hours

Space Above Corneria

Cris hit the "Off" button on the digital alarm clock on her nightstand before it even had a chance to utter a single beep. She liked to test her reflexes even _before_ she got out of bed. The white kitsune rose out of bed and stretched her arms, letting out a small yawn from the early morning.

The young woman blinked a few times, and her eyes observed her surroundings. She was in a silver-colored sleeping bag, which was located in the top-left corner of her cube-shaped room. Atop the short mahogany nightstand beside her was an ebony-black, LCD digital alarm clock with a small, bulb-shaped lamp, which she flicked on to better observe the room around her. Across the room in the bottom-left corner was her metal, three-drawer dresser just beside the entrance to the bathroom. In the top-right corner of the room was where her weapons rack was- loaded up full with katanas, tanto swords, nightsticks, bayonets, and even a spiked ball-and-chain. Finally, in the bottom-right corner of the room was the door to the outside hallway. This was her sleeping quarters.

Cris quickly leapt to her feet and flicked on the light switch. The lights remained off. She then gave a forceful kick to the wall near the switch, and the lone fluorescent light bulb turned on.

Muffled by the walls separating the rooms sounded, "Cris, would ya' mind keepin' it down?" Falco was definitely not a morning person.

_Would be nice if Adder renovated this old ship,_ Cris mentally complained. _Sure, he inherited it from James, but it needs some repairs, nevertheless._

She casually walked across the room's beige-colored carpet toward the bathroom door, which hissed open after reading her movement towards the sensor. The lights automatically turned on, and the fox gazed into her reflection.

Cris never liked to think of herself that often. She learned many years before that self-obsession led the way to malice, but now she started to think otherwise. Her fur was slightly messy due to her rather restless sleep, although relatively neat. Her gray-colored eyes gave off a slightly masculine feel, which further highlighted her state as a tomboy. She wore a set of severely wrinkled, pink, plaid pajamas that were a little baggy around the arms and legs.

She tore herself from her reflection and entered the steam shower. After a quick, hot jet of steam rushed out, she stepped out and patted down her now-wrinkle-free pajamas and pressed down her fur to make herself look presentable. With a short gurgling of dental foam (and its regurgitation), she looked neat and tidy.

The white-furred kitsune exited the bathroom and went to her dresser and selected a gray T-shirt and a pair of black shorts, along with her violet trench coat. The teams were going to have a rough battle today, so she at least wanted something plain that wouldn't weigh her down in her armor. She undressed and redressed herself and was ready to go.

Cris exited her room and walked down the wide, brightly lit, white hallway to the teleporter. With the temporary thought of the training room and a slight feeling of lightheadedness, she opened her eyes to the firing range of her favorite of all the _Dreadnought_'s rooms.

_Time for the wake-up call,_ Cris thought with a smile. She went to the firearms rack and selected a demon launcher, which she heaved onto her shoulders with great effort. She crouched down and selected her target- an empty training tank. With a boisterous roar, the heavy ballistic rocket launcher blew apart the tank without difficulty. And from the flurry of loud footsteps coming from upstairs, it seemed that everyone was wide awake now, whether they liked it or not.

Cris replaced the launcher on its original rack and went back into the teleporter, this time, thinking about the mess hall. After a few seconds, she was in the similarly white-colored cafeteria, where Brutus was serving the few mercenaries who were already up- Adder, Marcus, Ace, and Panther, who was motioning for her to sit down with him.

She mouthed in response, "Don't even think about it." It was followed by a grimace from the black wildcat.

As the female casually walked up to Brutus, he grinned, "Mornin' Cris, what would'ya like for breakfast?"

"Tea and a bagel with butter would be fine, thank you," Cris stated her order.

"Comin' right up," Brutus headed into the galley. "Just wait a bit for it to get toasty."

"Alright,"

"Aw, damn! How the heck am I gonna make food now?!"

Cris raised an eyebrow, "What's goin' on back there?"

Brutus came back to the counter, "Ace went and took the whole freaking mini-oven! Probably for one of his inventions. Can you go get it back from him?"

"Okay, okay," Cris headed straight for the teleporter bound for the elevator room, which was basically everything its name implied.

Once she stepped out of the other teleporter, she headed down the first elevator to the entryway for the ship's hangar.

Cris kicked open the doors, and surprised Ace, who was at his work table welding something together.

"Dang, I can't work for a few minutes without something bothering me!" Ace whined childishly. "Every second! What's up, Cris?"

"Um, the mini-oven's missing," she replied.

Ace went back to welding with his face shield flipped down, "Mm-hm."

"And, Brutus says you took it."

"Mm-hm."

"Sooo…"

"So?" Ace turned to her and flipped up his face shield.

"So where is it? We need it to make breakfast!"

"Oh! Um…there _might_ be a problem with that…" Ace slowly turned away.

Cris sighed, "What did you do?"

"Well…," the albino pointed toward a mess of metal and aluminum.

Cris frowned and spoke in a sarcastic tone, "You took it apart. Oh, joy. Oh, rapture."

"See, I needed some electrical components for my latest weapon, and the most ideal kind are, well, the mini-oven's," Ace smiled.

"Brutus won't be so happy about that," Cris massaged her temples.

"Oh, really? He'll love this, then," Ace then heaved his new weapon off the work bench.

The weapon had the design of a basic chaingun, with a few alterations. One was that the trigger and trigger guard were located on top of the weapon. The second was that instead of the four barrels of the chaingun, some weird electric cattle prod-esque barrel replaced them. Besides that, there wasn't anything much else that was new…other than the transparent area in back of the barrel that had tons of electric bolts swarming inside of it.

"Like it? Of course you do," Ace teased. "Alright, this here's my latest weapon- the antimatter cannon. Gathers dark matter and atoms from the atmosphere around it and fires a beam with high speed and accuracy. The good news is that it has unlimited ammunition and is, well let me just show you."

He pulled the trigger. A thunderous roar sounded off, and a long, narrow beam of blue beam protruded from the tip of the barrel and hit a Landmaster tank not so far away from Cris. She, instinctively, fell to a prone position. As the roar echoed through the spacious hangar, she got up and looked back at the Landmaster. The light tank was completely disintegrated, along with the other seven Landmasters nearby.

"Wow. I guess we can forgive you for dismantling out toaster," Cris nodded. "Now what's the bad news?"

"Well," Ace took a deep breath, "It has a slow rate of fire, it's really loud, it will only be able to fire if there's an atmosphere, so it's impossible to use in space; and…it's still a prototype."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Well, let's just say I tested it on one of our Bloody Maws," Ace closed his eyes and pointed to the left.

Cris looked at where he was pointing, and dropped her jaw. Where once had been a dozen of the team's fighters was now a gaping hole. The only thing preventing decompression was the energy shielding around the mothership.

"You see, the antimatter cannon apparently creates a chain reaction that gets more powerful based on the size of atomic structure of the thing it hits. That's why when it hit the Landmaster, it took the nearby seven along with it. The beam basically breaks down the atoms of the object that it hits and causes a mass fission of molecules. The bigger the object, the harder it hits."

"Jeez, Ace," Cris gasped. "How long have you been working on that thing?!"

"Eighteen years," Ace replied, "_My_ years. The prototype- this- is _way_ too dangerous for practical use. If I hit Solar, I could end up taking the whole Lylat System with it. Probably more."

"It's that powerful?" Cris asked, astonished.

"See that eraser?" Ace asked. "Watch."

"Ace fired the beam again and hit straight and true. An explosion the size and force of a grenade occurred, covering the surrounding floor in black soot.

Ace turned to Cris, "An explosion the magnitude of an explosive grenade, Cris, from a mere eraser."

Just then, Brutus came through the doors and asked, "Ace, what the heck did you do with-" He looked at the smoking floor and the gaping hole where the fighter clamps used to be, then at Cris and Ace, "…I'll just use the microwave." And with that, Brutus left the hangar.

"So can't you just tune it down a little?" Cris queried.

"That's impossible," Ace shook his head and began. "You see, an exact balance of matter and dark matter is needed. If there's too much matter, the weapon will fire a useless, solid projectile. If there's too much dark matter, then the weapon will fire an intangible beam of energy. You see, it all has to do with the fact that the laws or relativity and those of quantum mechanics usually don't agree with each other outside of the focal point of unity. Furthermore, dark matter has the tendency to repel regular matter due to Graham's laws of neutral-"

"Y'know what, I'm just gonna grab a bite to eat," Cris finally spoke, interrupting the albino. "See you later!"

Cris shuddered from the mere thought of how powerful that weapon was as she went back to the elevator. After rising up a few floors, then going back through the teleporter, she ended up back at the mess hall, where everyone was now awake and eating breakfast, including both generals.

She was surprised that Aloysius was sitting with Xamuros and chatting with each other- even extracting laughs. Of course, they couldn't eat anything even if they wanted, but this was one of the first times she ever saw Aloysius being social with anyone other than Adder.

Adder! Where was he? Cris spotted him alone at a table in the far corner of the hall, balancing his head on the fist of his replacement mechanical arm. After picking up her (slightly burnt) bagel and tea from Brutus, she went up to the snake, who snapped his head up as she approached.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" the white vixen asked.

"No," Adder sighed, "not at all."

Cris sat down opposite of the veteran. As she began spreading butter on each halve of the bagel, she asked, "Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine," he replied.

"Really?" she cocked her head sideways, "It's not that hard to tell if someone's troubled."

Adder remained silent as Cris popped the first piece of bagel into her mouth. He finally sighed and said, "No, I'm not fine, I…," he sighed again, "…my village."

"Oh," Cris nodded. "That. I understand how you feel, you know." Adder snapped his head up, "Remember the city where you saved me? Caravan? That's where you promised my dying mom that you would take care of me, no matter what. You needed to then destroy the city after that in order to prevent Andross's troops from obtaining the manufacturing plants."

"I remember," Adder smiled a little bit. "They demoted me from lieutenant because I disobeyed direct orders to get you out of the combat zone."

"Yeah," she leaned back in the bench. "So you see? Despite that, just look at you. You had nothing to regret from that day. The past will always be the past. The present is determined by the actions you did in the past- if they'll haunt you or not. If you let go of the past, you need not worry about the past haunting you for your future."

"Hmph, some deep words," Adder quietly chuckled. "Thanks, Cristine. You know, I sort of-"

"Do I really need to say it again?" Cris shook her head. "_Cris._ At least give me the luxury of calling me that-"

"May I have your attention, please?"

Everyone looked at the origin of the voice. General Pepper was standing up in the middle of the room and spoke, "It's time."

* * *

Cris was now in the control room of the _Dreadnought_, where every team member was sitting in a command chair. Everyone had taken a seat, minus the generals and field master, who were standing in front of the holoprojector.

Outside of the mothership's massive windshield were at least fifty capital ships of all nationalities, thirteen aircraft carriers, twenty battleships, thirty transports with boarding parties ready, and eleven destroyers; they were all formation around the _Dreadnought_, which was to be the flagship. Thousands of fighters of all sorts swarmed around Not a single planet or moon missed out on sending their troops into battle- Corneria, Zoness, Macbeth, Venom, Fichina, Kew, Zoness, Aquas…every army was here for the final battle.

Pepper turned to ROB and ordered, "Activate fleet-wide communications."

"Affirmative, general. FleetCOM line is secure and open."

"Soldiers of the Confederation," the supreme general began, "the time has come to engage the humans in the final battle! It is time to repay the humans for their foolishness, time to gain retribution for all of the planets that were overrun by them! No longer are we on the defensive- now is the time to bring the fight to them! Don't hold back anything; hit them with all you've got! Death to the human invaders- this is the cry of our mothers' prayers! Death to the human invaders- this is the hope of your Lylatian earth!" So many cheers broke out over the comm that static soon broke out over all the voices going over the network at once.

Then, and old, gray hare appeared on the projector. He wore a general's outfit, which consisted of a seamless red pants and shirt with two vertical rows of yellow buttons, and golden epaulettes. A pair of spectacles topped his nose. A white mustache further implied his advanced age.

"Hello, friends! Nice to see you guys again!"

"Heh, I knew you'd come around, Peppy!" Fox smiled, "Welcome back!"

"Well, of course I'm back!" the brigadier general chuckled. "You guys can't keep me in retirement forever! Ah, seems like you guys met my old friends, too. Nice to see you all again, Wolf and Adder."

"Nice timing, old man," Wolf grinned. "Try to keep yourself in flying straight, if you can."

"Ah, don't worry," the hare shook his head. "I'm in command of a battleship, so don't worry about me gettin' shot down. Plus, I'm not the only one here back for a reunion- come out guys!"

The familiar dozen Cornerian fighters of Husky Squadron flew overhead, along with three other ships. One was a wide arwing with small wings that were bent upwards at the middle. Like any other arwing, it had four G-diffusers, though they were not as powerful, and the single rear engine was not so impressive-looking. However, it did boast two plasma cannons, which were located near the beginning of each wing. The cockpit, rectangular and tinted black, was located at in front of the engine.

The second was an aqua-green ship that resembled a tadpole- even with the tail. It had two headlights in front of a dome-like cockpit, with the engines located on either side of the tail. Underneath the spacecraft were a single laser cannon and a multi-lock system.

The final maroon-colored ship was flat and circular with rod-like wings and an arc laser cannon in front. The fighter had rear engine flanked by two long, curved G-diffusers. The cockpit, which had a low profile, was a wide, disk-like extension on the top of the spacecraft, with slit-like windows in the front and sides.

"Teams, say hello to some old buddies- First, here's Bill Grey,"

The familiar dog commander clad in a silver flight vest appeared on the holoprojector, this time with a black helmet, indicating his promotion to major. He happily tipped his helmet off to the teams.

"Slippy and Amanda Toad,"

The short green frog that was a past Star Fox member floated nearby Grey's projection. He wore a yellow cargo vest with a red baseball cap and wore black and gray gloves and boots. A silver belt encircled his slightly wide gait.

Appearing at his side was his thin, tall, pink-colored wife, Amanda. She wore a lime-green jumpsuit, with olive green shoulder pads, as well as a small, sky blue ascot. White gloves and boots complimented her outfit. A large, yellow bow lay behind the top of her head.

"and Katt Monroe!"

Last to appear was the female cat. She had gray fur, with beige ears, face, and stomach region. Katt wore a maroon bandana with a blue-centered, yellow diamond in the center. Matching red gloves and boots were also present, along with a blue pendant. She wore an orange-colored tank top, with an orange breast area and red straps. She also wore a pair of maroon cargo pants and had a neat, orange belt circling around her waist. Violet-red eyeliner streaked across her eyelids.

"Heh, this final battle thing is more like a reunion," Falco commented. "Nice to see ya again everyone. Hey, Katt! How you doin'?"

"Fine, thanks," Falco's old girlfriend replied. "General Peppy here asked us all to aid in this battle."

"Ah, we finally meet, Slippy," Ace smiled, "genius to genius, wunderkind to wunderkind."

"So this is the Ace Hawkins I heard about?" Slippy asked. "Wow. I thought he'd be little taller…"

"Hey, I'm almost twice as tall as you are, my froggy friend!" he growled.

"Don't you talk to my honey that way!" Amanda growled back.

"I hate it when she calls me that," Slippy whispered.

"You do realize we can all hear you right?" she asked, and Slippy gulped a little.

Katt rolled her eyes, and exclaimed, "Enough with the formalities, or close enough to them, anyways! We came here to fight!"

"Hold on now, miss," Grey spoke. "Let's just follow orders and listen to the generals, then you can fight all ya want."

"Ahem, thank you, Major Grey," Halcyon cleared his throat. "Alright, men," And with a glare from Katt, Cris, Krystal, and Amanda, "…and women, we'll review the plan. Now you are going to form around the _Dreadnought_ in A-formation. Yes, that is it," he spoke as the fleet shifted around to comply with the orders.

"Alright," Halcyon continued, "we are going to strike hard near the starboard side of what we believe to be the humans' base of operations. Those at the front of the formation will break apart and attack at will, while the rest will form a barrier around us. We are here to cause as much destruction as possible, so anything that was built by the humans aside from the base itself, feel free to wreck as you please. Do not, under any circumstances, attack the enemy base unless you are doing so against its defenses. Then, the boarding parties will enter the base, capture the leader, this Lord Tycho Iradanus, and destroy the base after they exit. Understand? Good. Supreme general, it is your call now."

"Thank you, general," Pepper nodded. "Now, soldiers; it is time for the final battle! ROB, create a slipstream rift large enough for the entire fleet!"

"Yes, sir," the monotonous voice of the old navigation robot responded. "Analyzing dimensions of fleet. Creating slipstream rift with proper stream dimensions now."

As everyone strapped themselves in for the rough transfer, a thin, multicolored beam erupted from the tip of the _Dreadnought_'s prow and continued for about a quarter of a mile before creating a huge spiraling vortex. This time, it wouldn't be just one ship going through the rift, but several thousands, including the fighters. Due to these high numbers, a different result occurred. Every ship in the fleet was turned into large pixels of different colors, which then stretched as they entered the slipstream rift, sort of like a computer transferring bits and bytes. Cris felt the sensation that her mind was being ripped apart from her body instead of the usual weightlessness. Light filled the entire room, making everything completely white.

When color returned to the world, the ship came to an abrupt stop, making everyone lurch forward. Cris recovered from the shock and looked outside the ship's windshield. Empty space filled the screen, with small, red particles gently floating around. Only one place had this kind of phenomenon- the Sector X nebula of the Lylat System.

_Fit for the humans to make their base in a mysterious location like this._ Cris thought.

"Status report," Pepper barked as everyone got out of their seats. Cris stretched from the unnatural fatigue that stemmed from slipstream travel.

"All systems are operating at full capacity in entire fleet," ROB spoke. "No anomalies detected. Entire fleet is intact."

"Excellent, now everyone, charrr…," the supreme general stopped mid-sentence, then growled, "What's going on here?"

Everyone looked out the window. Like they had expected, there was the human base of operations floating in space. It was of a shape similar to many of the space stations of the time. The station resembled a cartwheel, and long cables connected the outer rim of the station to the inner cylinder much like the spokes of a wheel. The whole station was gray, and a dozen of white spots indicated lights in the inside. Solar panels spread out from the top and bottom of the center cylinder. The whole station was about the size of several cities put together. The thing that got to them was the fact that there wasn't anything happening other than the slow rotation of the space station on its artificial axis. There were no starships of any sort prepared to defend the station, no signs of activity from inside the space station…nothing of interest going on.

"Hey, what gives?" Falco whined, "I thought there would be at least a couple hundred enemy ships out there that are prepared to blow us to bits! Not even a single bullet from a defense turret on the station or something!"

Murmurs began to run through the radio, and Cris felt as if something didn't feel just right.

"What? No show?!" Bill Grey exclaimed.

Xamuros immediately went to a computer near ROB and clacked away with his scythe-like arms.

"Guys, I have some good news and some bad news," he lowered his head.

"Well, I figured we'd hear something like that," Katt chatted over the radio, "What's the good news?"

"The good news," Xamuros spoke, "is that we outnumber the enemy."

"Uh…what enemy?" Amanda inquired.

"That," the field master replied glumly, "would be the bad news."

Several bulges appeared in the space around the fleet, each revealing a Seraph, which began to fire away at the fleet. Drones also started to appear from slipstream rifts as well.

"Fleet, attack those Seraphs and Drones!" Halcyon ordered.

"I think the correct term would be 'Seraphim'," Slippy corrected.

"Please do not correct me," Halcyon leered. "Ever."

"Now is definitely not the time," Pepper shouted. "Adder, does the _Dreadnought _have any manual turrets?"

"Yes, sir," the snake snapped to attention, "There are twelve turrets at different locations around the ship. Everything is automated…or has fallen into a state of disrepair."

"You really need a paycheck, don't you?" the general shook his head. He then ordered, "Star Fox, Star Serpent, man those turrets! Star Wolf launch your Wolfens now!"

Everyone hurried off to their ordered locations. Cris dashed into the teleporter and reappeared in a small, cramped room where a ball turret lay ahead of her. She instantly climbed into the seat and activated the turret, which hummed to life as the holographic HUD appeared around her, which monitored the damage of the mothership and the turret itself, radar, and ammunition.

As the turret was going down the chute to the outside, Cris observed the cramped space. Switchboards, wires, and flashing lights were everywhere, and she didn't know the functions of at least three-quarters of them. She was sitting in a small operating chair with two pedals at her feet. Leaning her feet would make the turret turn for that direction. The turret was now reaching the opening, and with the light that shined into the dark turret, she could now see the two triggers, which rested on either side. Outside of the turret, now visible, were two laser autocannons and an anti-spacecraft missile pod, which was stacked five tubes by five tubes. The left trigger would probably control the autocannons, while the right one controlled the missile pods. Cris hoped that she remembered her training for this, since turrets were her least favored weapons.

A loud thud indicated that the turret was locked outside now, and was operable. A holographic reticule activated itself and Cris gazed outside. A maze of lasers, laser and metal missiles, explosions, and directed energy beams, as well as the clamor of the space battle, slightly dulled by the vacuum environment, were extremely obnoxious, and Cris found it hard to concentrate through all of it.

She immediately started firing into a Drone, whose shield burst after a two second burst, and exploded a fraction of a second later.

_Wait a minute, _Cris thought. _Drones? They couldn't harm a fighter! _Just then, a Narrow, V-shaped Zonessian fighter streaked by and was blown apart as a red blaze of energy impacted against it. Flying shrapnel impacted against the titanium-laminate glass. _Okay, then. They've replaced the dark energy bolt cannon with a railgun. Noooow they can do some damage. _

A Seraph zoomed toward the _Dreadnought_, firing spurts of DE at its energy shields. Cris fired a stream of lasers into it, but only a few impacted against it before it jumped into slipstream. She glanced at the shield rating of the ship. It was at sixty-nine percent and slowly falling.

_Sixty-nine already?!_ Cris thought bewildered. _Oh, yeah. Ace's little mess. Just great._

Cris cursed as she blew apart a Drone about to fire at her turret. She had almost forgotten the most basic rule of fighting in a turret- one must learn to use the HUD sparingly, due to the shift of focus that occurs from the distraction. And on the battlefield, distractions could mean death. She cursed at herself again for being so careless.

Cris, with renewed focus, pressed the right trigger and passed the reticule over a Drone and two Seraphs with great speed. She depressed the trigger and three missiles erupted from their pods. One Seraph was blown apart as the missiles hit the unwary pilot from the rear, making it spout flames from the back before its engines exploded. The Drone was hit hard, but the shields absorbed the damage. In the meantime, the Seraph swerved out of the way of the hastily fired missile…then crashed right into the Drone, both of whom exploded in a brilliant, red flash.

The white fox shifted her concentration to a Drone in pursuit of a Cornerian fighter. She thoughtlessly launched a missile, and cursed at her second mistake of the day as the missile locked onto the Cornerian fighter instead of the Drone, which exploded as the missile struck it right on the canopy. Rage filling her mind, she blew apart the Drone with a long burst of lasers.

A Cornerian aircraft carrier filled the window, and Cris gasped at what she saw. The whole carrier was covered from prow to stern in Drones, which were swarming all over the ship, firing their Bloodlust-class railguns from point-blank range. Cris began to fire lasers and missiles as fast as she could, since she would probably hit a Drone since they were enshrouding the carrier anyways. Drones were blown off of the carrier, but new ones took their place. Cris knew that she couldn't do a thing to save the carrier. So many brave souls were going to be lost, and she could only watch as they would die.

Then, a multitude of laser missiles impacted against each and every Drone, creating spectacular flurry of explosions. After the red blossoms faded away, the carrier, heavily damaged, slowly sort of limped away like a dog with its tail between its legs. Leon's Rainbow Delta flew across the screen, firing even more laser missile salvoes into the breech.

_Thank goodness for fighter support, _Cris sighed.

She then shifted her attention to a small group of Seraphs (or rather Seraphim, as Slippy kept correcting), which appeared to be more skilled than the rest, utilizing their slipstream techniques to the fullest. She fired several laser autocannon bursts in their direction, but they were clearly too skilled, and not a single shot hit as they merely jinked to avoid getting hit. Suddenly, the fighters were frozen solid and shattered as several bolts of electricity impacted against them.

_Dang, what I wouldn't give to be able to have telepathy like Krystal._

Static started to fill her ears, and an angry tone growled, "Cris, why can't you just turn on the freaking radio? It's just a few switch-flicks away!"

"Ace, now is _definitely_ not the time!" Cris screamed as she turned a trio of Drones into fireballs that were quickly extinguished in the oxygen-deprived space.

"Just saying, it takes a while to do it myself," Ace growled. "I've been trying to contact you for a whole minute! Get out of that turret now!"

"What? Why?"

"Look outside, and you can easily figure it out!"

Cris snapped her head towards the window, and looked right into the photoreceptors of a Drone, which was charging its railgun. She cursed and leapt for the chute. She slammed the emergency airlock button, and blast doors covered the entry into the turret just before a red blaze could be seen between the cracks of the doors.

Cris exhaled a sigh of relief, and started crawling through the chute back to the turret entry. She pulled herself out of the cramped passage and passed through the teleporter and reappeared on the bridge, where flashing red emergency lights and whining klaxons were set off…and where there just happened to be an angry-looking Ace.

"I can't believe you haven't noticed that Drones are now swarming over the ship!" Ace exclaimed, "I had to turn on your turret's radio by hand! You're lucky you're even alive right now!"

"Jeez, Ace," Tallon cocked an eyebrow, "we're all here aren't we?"

"I'm surprised how calm you are," his brother sighed, "considering that the entire hull of the _Dreadnought_ is now covered in Drones."

"

Oh," Tallon realized. "Now we can start to panic."

The entire windshield of the bridge's windshield was now bathed in a sea of glaring photoreceptors and red railgun discharges.

"The _Dreadnought_'s hull is now at critical condition," ROB analyzed. "Shields at ten percent and falling rapidly."

Suddenly, the Drones stopped firing. Seraphim hovered next to each Drone and caused a gigantic slipstream rift. The whole enemy strike force disappeared in an instant.

"Ooookay then," Krystal put her hands on her hips. "What just happened?"

"Hm," Xamuros thought aloud. "It appears that the Drones and Seraphim broke off their attack… Something's not right here."

"Well, we might as well consider this a stroke of luck," Halcyon sighed. "Let us take advantage of this momentary ceasefire and board the facility," He went to the radio, "Star Wolf, get your fighters inside. We're going to board the facility."

"Well it's about time too," the lupine grumbled. "Let's get this over with."

"Teams," Pepper ordered, "you are to go along with the boarding parties, so get ready. Xamuros, Halcyon, and I will stay here and command the fleet."

Xamuros was looking through the windshield at the station.

"Something seems familiar about that…" he murmured, the spoke, "Generals, I'm sorry, but I'm going to lead my Spades in the station. This is our battle too."

"You are a field master," Halcyon objected, "That type of personnel's responsibility is to lead from the field, and in this case, from here."

"Well, you all know Spades don't have the fingers to pilot aircraft or use controls. It's best I lead my people."

"Alright," Halcyon relented. "Just do what you need to do."

"Thank you, sir," Xamuros saluted them.

Cris headed into the teleporter and reappeared in the armory. She put on a combat jumpsuit then got one of Ace's special armor suits and donned it. Then, she placed a tactical helmet over her head with a hiss of air as the headgear connected with the grooves in the neck collar of her armor.

In a new world of a slightly orange tint, she went to the weapons rack. Space stations were tight quarters, so she would need something optimal for close ranges or something powerful. Or she could simply pick both.

Cris selected her favored FBI-13 sniper carbine and took several clips. She went to a work desk and duct taped each pair of clips together- one right side-up, and the other upside-down. This way, she didn't have to search her waist compartment for clips as often and could reload quicker by just flipping over each clip she finished. She then attached a silencer-flash suppressor to the barrel, which would barely lower the power of her carbine's lethal bullets. She now had something powerful.

Cris then went back to the weapons rack and chose another weapon, this time an FAMAS-67 SMG. The SMG had the basic design of a small carbine, but the clip was loaded horizontally and flat against the top of the design. Again, she attached a silencer-flash suppressor, and then realized it would be even harder to reload the weapon since she would have to search for two clips whenever she would need to cross-level her current clips in both weapons. Also, the FAMAS- 67 had a high rate of fire, meaning she would have to reload often. She decided to snatch a plasma core and attached it like a clip on top of the SMG, then cocked it. An ascending tone filled the air as the plasma core charged. Now she also had something ideal for close ranges. Perfect. Now she had a powerful weapon and an optimal weapon.

Cris checked her weapons, then finally decided to attach bayonets to each one, then tried the weapons by holding them outwards. They were both relatively light and didn't hinder her mobility that much, but her carbine was noticeably heavier, and she wanted a good balance provided if she needed to pull off some acrobatics. She removed the 4x scope of the carbine, and replaced it with a smaller, lighter 2x scope. She again checked her weapons and went with the current customization.

The rest of the team was now boarding a landing ship that had entered the hanger, which was basically appeared like a brick with two engine pods at the rear. She entered the door and went into a seat. Cris clicked on the seat belts, then pulled the safety harness over her shoulders. The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and lastly Star Wolf filed into the rows of seats, following the same safety procedure.

After everyone was seated, the pilot turned back towards the soldiers, and joked, "Welcome aboard, ladies and gentlemen. Today we are bound for the humans' base of operations. Please keep your hands, arms, and feet inside the vehicle at all times until we touch down. Keep your luggage in overhead storage compartments, then read the informative safety pamphlets located in the pocket of the seat in front of you. Wait, we don't have any of those! Hang on to your hats and glasses, people! It's gonna be a wild ride!"

"I really hate this guy…," Cris grumbled.

"Hey, I heard that, lady! Any attitude problems will result in the ejection from this flight!"

Aloysius sighed, "Kids…what can you do?" After receiving harsh glares from Tallon and Marcus, he spoke defiantly while shrugging, "What?"

The pilot punched the engines on and the landing ship roared out of the hangar of the _Dreadnought_. Cris was surprised that the ride so far was rather smooth.

"Strange," Leon quirked. "Normally, we'd be taking evasive maneuvers from defensive fire from the facility."

"You wanna jinx us, lizard boy?" Panther growled. "You _do_ have a point, though. Things are acting weird around here."

"I know," Adder agreed. "First the enemy fighters disappear right before they were about to defeat us, and now the station's not firing at us either."

"Then," Fox spoke, "we can only assume that this is a trap, and we're going to have to rush headlong into it anyway."

"Hmph," Xamuros sneered in his robotic way. "Normally I have to do the thinking for you guys. Seems I have a break for now."

"Hey," the prairie dog pilot added, "that's not the only thing weird. It kinda looks like the whole station's deserted. Nothing's firing at us, the lights aren't flickering on or off, and there's no sign of activity in the station."

The radio whined, "Camp-down seven, camp-down seven, you might want to stay put. We're gonna blow the doors open. Clear the- what the hell?!"

Cris tried her best to lean over the harness and look out of the window. The station's hangar doors were opening by themselves, as if inviting the landing ships in.

"Did you see all that?" the radio chirped.

"Who wouldn't have?" the pilot replied back. "Somethin' ain't right."

"The fleet says they're scanning the building now…and they say there's nutin' alive in there. Nothing moving either."

"Well, those sensors have been fooled before," the pilot turned serious. "Remember the Anglar War? The patrols scanned Venom five times everyday and report nutin'. Then, the Anglars com out, and invade us."

"Whatever. Regardless, we need to get on that station now. Over and out."

"Wait, I- dangit!" the pilot slammed the control console. "Well, so much for that. Guys, once we land, get ready for anything, and I mean _anything_."

The landing ship cruised onto the landing platform inside the station after passing through a minor force field that prevented decompression while the doors were open. The ship touched down, and the door opened.

"Go go go!" the pilot ushered everyone out. Cris flung off her safety harness and clicked open the seat belts. She hoisted her weapons off her back and headed outside.

The hangar was well lit, and everything was a spotless field of white. Service clamps hung overhead, and fuel tanks empty and full littered the floor. Tool carts and trolleys laid abandoned on the ground. A multitude of doors connected the room to the rest of the station. Perfectly natural for any hangar. The eerie thing was, the whole place was empty aside from the arriving soldiers, mechs, Spades, and landing ships. No fighters, no defense systems, no Drones. Nothing.

Cris put her gut instincts that something was wrong at rest, as Katt and Slippy hurried over to the group, both in combat armor. Falco and Katt quickly embraced each other, while Fox and the others welcomed Slippy back. Katt was wielding a blaster and a laser SMG, while Slippy was united with an M-1 RIPJAW HMG. Most of everyone was ready for this fight.

"Alright, troops," Peppy's voice filled everyone's radio. "You know what to do. Get Iradanus at any cost, and set an explosive at this thing's generator. After that…" The rest was quickly lost in a sea of white noise. Electrical interference filled the air as the intercom turned on.

A human's voice filled the intercom system, "Welcome, Lylatians. Welcome to our base of operations."

"I'd know that voice anywhere," Xamuros growled. "Lord Tycho Iradanus."

"So every one of you is here," Iradanus continued in his formal, yet hostile tone. "I congratulate you soldiers for getting this far…but I doubt most of you will go any further."

"What's he trying to accomplish?" Katt yawned. "Bore us with the formalities?"

"It seems like he's trying to distract us…," Slippy whispered, then screamed. "THE DOORS!"

Everyone turned toward the hangar door, which was rapidly closing. To everyone's dismay, the door shut, and an intense, red force field surrounded it. They were now trapped inside the facility.

"Ah, a select few of you realized my distraction, then," Iradanus laughed a bit. "Well, it seems none of you are going to leave any time soon. Don't even think that the fleet will be able to rescue you either. They might be able to blow open the hangar doors, but they'll never get through the force field. Oh, I'm also sorry that I've seemed to accidentally put a containment field around the station and the fleet too! Ha-ha-ha, I guess they'll join in on the fun as well! Already my Drones and Seraphim are bombarding them!"

"What do you want, Iradanus?" Xamuros shouted. "You've already done enough!"

"Oh, really, Field Master?" Iradanus replied, which surprised everyone that he could hear them. "Yes, I can hear and see each and every one of you. I am thoroughly disappointed in you, Spades. I granted you power, and you turn it against us. How foolish, since now we get to destroy you all as well.

"To those of you wondering, yes. This is our base of operations… Well, it used to be, anyways. You are now standing in Research Facility Gamma. Ring any bells, Spades? It was your birthplace, so I'd hardly forget it. My strike force gave the personnel enough time to evacuate the premises, but I will remain here… to watch you all suffer, of course, ha-ha-ha! We humans have suffered too long underneath you alien races, so we hope to eradicate you all!"

"Why are you doing this?" Adder roared. "What are you trying to accomplish by draining the planets' energy?"

"Those questions," Iradanus kept a calm tone, "I will not answer. However…there _is_ a computer in my office that _might_ contain the juicy answers to those questions and possibly more. And, there also _might_ be a control console that'll guarantee your escape. Seeing that you're still trapped in here anyways, you don't really have a choice but to proceed and hope for the best."

A female mechanical voice chimed, "Warning. Main generator has been shut down. Activating auxiliary power generator. Security system rebooted and active. Life support systems at eighty-seven percent and rising. Orbit maintained. Danger. Not enough energy to sustain power grid. System failure in T-minus ten seconds."

"Oh, did I do that?" Iradanus laughed. "Well this makes things worse for you all. And before I forget- if you weren't afraid of the dark before-" The lights suddenly became extremely intense, then every single light in the whole station went out. Then, a single light turned on, and Iradanus was standing in the middle of the small army. "-you will be." he finished. The surprised soldiers wheeled around and fired at the madman. Each bullet, laser, and plasma bolt impacted against him, but just sent a spray of sparks in every direction. Iradanus laughed at the Lylatians', Spades', and mechs' futile attempts to kill him, then vanished, along with the single light that was on.

The Lylatians started to panic at the sudden darkness, and Fox screamed, "Everybody quiet!" The hangar became silent, "Thank you! Now we can't just let a little darkness scare all of us, can't we? I didn't think so. All we have to do is reboot the main generator. Sure, the system _did_ say that the security system was active, but we'll be fine!"

"Warning," said an all-too-familiar mechanical voice. "Power grid failure has caused a malfunction. Specimen containment system is offline. Evacuate all personnel immediately."

"Aaaaand, now we're not," Fox drooped his head.

"Ah, quit worrying, pup," Wolf chuckled. "So some 'specimens' got loose. What's the worse could go wrong?"

* * *

Famous last words, eh? Anyhoo, just a reminder that chapter 11 is pretty much the bloodiest and goriest of Contact you'll see. So...if you don't like spilling organs or freakish experiments... Kindly shield your eyes.

Or keep reading. I hope you take this choice. XD

Also, yes- I've brought some familiar faces here. I guess that I should've done something more with them for this chapter, now that I look back at it. Oh, well.


	17. Chapter 11, Part 2: The Worst That Could

Chapter 11, Part 2: The Worse That Could Go Wrong

"You know, Wolf," Cris grimaced, "when people say that, things _always_ go wrong."

"Oh really?" Wolf smirked. "Like what?"

"Well, things _have_ already gone wrong, for one," Cris sighed. "First, we discover that this is no longer the human base of operations; two, we know that Iradanus is here and has shut down the power grid to the station, and is most likely watching our every step; third, we are separated from the fleet, and both we and they are in dire situations; fourth, we have no choice but to go after the control console and main generator, knowing that there are security systems and 'specimens' most likely waiting for us; and fifth, it's pitch black. Somebody turn on their freaking flashlight already!"

With that, hundreds of flashlight beams cut through the darkness, and everybody was relieved to find that nothing was waiting for them…for the time being.

"Okay," Adder began, "since none of us here know the layout of this research facility, we have no choice but to split up into groups in order to find either the main generator, or Iradanus's quarters, or even better yet both. Let's see…thirteen doors means thirteen groups. Split up as you see fit. Now, move out."

Cris immediately head out for a door without any concern of forming a group. She did better lone wolf than being part of a squad, contrary to Adder's orders. However, a few soldiers tagged along with her anyways- a bulldog, two Spades, and an assault-class mech.

"Oh, for-" Cris was about to curse, but then decided being in a squad was probably for the best. "Fine, fine. Let's just get it over with. Mech, you won't fit through the door, so just blow the thing open, 'k?"

The assault mech fired two rockets into the door, sending metal debris everywhere. After the initial spray of dust and particles settled, there was a large hole large enough for the mech to walk through, which it did, along with the soldiers.

After passing through the wrecked remains of the doorway, Cris held up a hand and closed and opened her hand repeatedly. The flashlights went off, and everyone activated their night vision displays. With a soft hum, the world became ablaze with colors pertaining to the shades of green, white, gray, and black.

The hallway ahead of them was lined with several doors, which they were to check. The flickering lights of the few partly-energized light fixtures, along with the greenish world of night vision gave everything a creepy feel- even things that normally wouldn't scare an average person. Despite this, Cris remained calm, and her heart and breathing rate were normal.

The small squad started bashing open doors, then searching the insides. Cris discovered a room with a heater. Nope. She kicked down the door to a lavatory. Nada. Next was an air-circulation room. Zip.

_Well, duh, _Cris thought, _Iradanus wasn't gonna make it that easy for us._

"There's gotta be a faster way than this," Cris shook her head. "Mech, can you find any rooms of interest on that radar of your?"

The mech gave of a series of deep grumbles and clacks, which a Spade translated, "He says there's a large room through that doorway, and he's detecting some electromagnetic waves in that room. However, the interference from some sort of jammer is blocking his radar from scanning anymore rooms, and is impairing his ability to detect heat signatures. We now have another objective, ma'am- find the frequency jammer and destroy it."

"Good 'nuff for me," Cris shrugged. "Let's have a look at where that doorway leads." And with that, she kicked the door off of its hinges.

For good measure, the bulldog chucked a fragmentation grenade through the doorway, which exploded moments later. He then cocked his head towards the door, and the rest went through the doorway. The small group of soldiers activated their flashlights, which sent cones of bright light into the depths of the darkness.

The large room was actually some sort of terminal. There were high-tech breaker drives everywhere, and there was a strange sealed-off entryway that led to the rest of the room. Cris went to the nearby sign, which read:

Attention: All faculty must

go through decontamination

before entry into the rest of

the facility for safety measures.

She checked the entryway again, and noticed it was lined with steam jets for decontamination. She nodded, and the soldiers and mech stepped into the passage. The entry behind them closed shut, and steam jets rushed from all sides. After the jets subsided, the entryway into the rest of the room opened up, and the squad moved on.

Cris shined her shoulder flashlight towards the floor, which had a red arrow on it that indicated that the room ahead was a security station.

_Hope the security's welcoming,_ she thought.

The small squad went on ahead down a narrow corridor, which the mech had some difficulty maneuvering through. Still everything was pitch black. Iradanus really spoke the truth- everything in the whole station was off except for basic life-support systems.

Cris and the soldiers eventually made it to a door, above read, "Security Terminal 301". She cocked her head and kicked the door, which was more solid than it looked, making her bounce back from recoil. So kicking wasn't gonna work this time. She then got out her carbine and easily blew the hinges off. A small tap to the door, and it fell into the next room.

Before she entered the room, Cris believed that the already high-tech humans weren't gonna get any more high-tech. _After_ she entered the room, she was proven wrong. What lay on the other side of the doorway was a long walkway over a gigantic chasm that led to a circular platform. The things that got to her were the two things _crawling_ around the walkway and platform.

There were several centipede-like machinations with dozens of sharp legs on each side. At the front of each machine were two stalk-like photoreceptors that glared blue...at the moment. When the intruders entered the room, the machines all turned towards them, and their photoreceptors turned a dark red. Each reared up, erupted a shrill klaxon-esque cry, and immediately started towards the new threats.

Cris immediately started firing into the machines, which, with surprising agility, leapt away from the shots and onto the walls, where they clung to the surface with their legs. One quickly leapt onto the bulldog with several of its spindly legs, then flung him off into the abyss with a scream. The other fired a beam of orange energy that was so hot, that the unfortunate Spade at the receiving end was set on fire, crumpling into the floor dead from the inferno around him.

The assault mech was able to kill the machine that attacked the bulldog, blowing it apart with its armor-piercing chaingun rounds. Cris fired both of her weapons into the other. To her surprise, the plasma sizzled at the machine, which gave off a whine from the pain. The remaining Spade finished it off with a Jackhammer burst that sent it tumbling into the abyss as well.

"What," Cris whispered harshly, "in the name of the afterlife were those?!"

"I'm guessing they're Sentries," the remaining Spade spoke. "I remember them from when I was turned into a Spade here. Like their name implies, they guard the area they are in, making them an efficient security system. Around here, they usually just make sure the specimens behave- priorities, first."

"Okay," Cris nodded, "so they're the security system."

"More like _a_ security system," the Spade corrected. "There are many more. Huh? To answer your question, mech, that was a highly advanced form of the DEB cannon that killed our brother, here."

"Dang," Cris cursed. "So, any idea how to turn 'em off?"

"No," he replied. "Normally, we'd just use that security computer over there to override their functions, but, as you already know, the power's out, so we can't. They're in auto for the time being."

"Alrighty, then," Cris sighed, "we have a sweet little Sentry that'll rip us apart or set us on fire, and we can't turn it off. Great. Just great."

With two men down, the soldiers and mech went back into the corridor, kicked down the door to an unexplored part of the room, and went on. Cris was already getting bored of the whole "kick-down-the-door-and-find-nothing-interesting" business. This doorway led to a large hallway, which had several T-junctions lining it.

The white fox started down the hallway, and heard a sucking noise. She wheeled around, searching for an enemy. The mech and Spade did the same, but found nothing.

Then, the Spade pointed at her shoulder and said, "Um, you've got something there."

While keeping a firm grip on her carbine, Cris touched her shoulder with two fingers, and brought it back in front of her visor. She had some kind of slimy, sticky, liquid on her fingers. In fact, it almost looked like-

"Drool," Cris thought aloud. Another wad of saliva landed at her feet. The whole squad looked up.

Above the soldiers and attached to the ceiling was a humanoid being- apparently a shock trooper without its helmet, only its neck and head exposed. The skin of the helmet-less shock trooper was entirely pale and full of wrinkles. The face had no ears to speak of and had squinted, bloodshot, iris-devoid eyes. There was no nose, since the whole lower portion of the face was a large, gaping, circular mouth with serrated teeth on all sides- sort of like a leech. Without closing its toothy maw, it sort of smiled at the group, and extended its claw gauntlets.

"You know what?" Cris grimaced. "Maybe shock troopers should _keep_ on their face masks."

The shock trooper immediately leapt onto the mech, and started clawing at the head-turret. Cris and the Spade started firing at the shock trooper, but it leapt off, and the rounds impacted against the assault mech instead, although harmlessly. The group began searching with their flashlights for the shock trooper. Cris was the first to find it- the cone of light illuminated and reflected off of the white eyes of the shock trooper. It shielded its apparently sensitive eyes with a hand, and then leapt at the source, which, unfortunately, was Cris.

She lifted up her right hand and blocked the swing of its claws with the thick hide of her armor, then rewarded a shot to the eye with her carbine. It hissed and leapt back, caressing the injured side of its head with one hand, white blood dripping down its length.

Just as the group was about to finish the thing off, it let out a bloodcurdling scream. Several similar screams sounded off in the distance, and several more shock troopers showed up.

_Of for the love of f-_ Cris was interrupted mid-thought as she parried off several claw gauntlet blows. The Spade and mech fired into the swarm of grotesques, sending chunks of white blood everywhere. Cris dodged a blow from another shock trooper and fired with both weapons into the multitude of shock troopers, mowing them down with carbine slugs and plasma bolts. At last, only the one-eyed shock trooper remained.

The shock trooper almost frowned, and sped off into the depths of the hallways before anyone could fire at it.

"I'm guessing those shock troopers are the specimens here," Cris sighed.

"More like just one type," the Spade shook his head. "Not a single laboratory I know about has only one type of experiment."

"Good point," Cris agreed, "now let's keep moving. I _really_ don't want any more of those shock troopers to show up."

There was a problem, however. The whole hallway was split into several T-junctions, and each of those T-junctions led to more. The group looked for the best choice, and found each to be unfavorable. Dark hallways with flickering lights always had something bad in them.

The mech made a series of grunts and squeaks, and the Spade nodded, "Okay, works for me. Left is right, and right is wrong."

The trio went down the first T-junction down the left hallway, then down the first T-junction there. They came across a door that read, "Work Station 9Y". The squad looked at each other, and decided that it wasn't going to get any better anyways.

The assault mech kicked the door open (and part of the doorway doing it), and the group went in and searched the entire room with their flashlights. The room had several work benches, where discarded blow torches, wrenches, drill presses, band saws, and other tools and equipment lay scattered around.

"This room feels extremely familiar," the Spade whispered, then pointed, "Now I know why." Cris regretted having to have looked at the work bench he was pointing at.

On the bench lined with surgical tools was a dead Spade. However, no one could really call it a Spade either. It was a human that was in the process of being turned into one. The human still had his original chest, stomach, back, and left leg. His right leg was the pointed spike that other Spades had, and while one side had one human arm, the other had two Spade arms and half a human arm. The head was in the process of being surgically changed into a Spade, giving it the face of a human, but it had the top half of a Spade's head starting near the forehead. Even more grotesque was the fact that where the human-Spade thing had skin or flesh, there were metal hooks and pipes holding it all together. Just looking at it made Cris feel queasy.

"What happened to him?" she gasped.

"The Spade project was terminated shortly after we rebelled," the Spade glumly answered, "so any Spades in the process of being made were to be halted in the procedure and killed. This one was still partially human at the time."

"That's terrible," Cris tried not to look into the eyes of the human-Spade, which were still open, "Were you given a choice of participating in the program?"

"To put it simply, _no_," came a voice behind them. The soldiers wheeled around and found Iradanus standing just a few feet away. The Spade lunged for him, but passed right through the human.

"Still don't have the intelligence to notice that this is a hologram?" Iradanus shook his head, then went over to the human-Spade. "Not a single one of you Spades were given a choice in the matter. After all, it was the best for the army, or at least, back then."

"You monster!" Cris growled at him. "What's a democracy without people who are free to make their own choices?!"

"Freedom, my foot," Iradanus replied, "Democracy is a thing of the past. Communism is the present and future of the government of United Earth and its colonies. A government ruled by the people is a fantasy that can never be accomplished! Average-Joes can't run a government properly. The only thing they can do is lead it down the road to anarchy. If the people are to be properly governed, it best be by one who has the better judgment- me. My interests are to make a universe where we rule supreme- even if it costs us dearly in the process. Sacrifices are a part of life, and lead to prosperity if the cards are played right. Communism means equality for all, and all to commune with one another. If the government regulates the economy, the laws, and the plenteousness of commodities and necessities…what is there for the people to worry about?"

"Quite the speech," Cris scoffed. "Too bad we're going to have to relieve you of your leadership."

"Just try," Iradanus's hologram started to fade away. "Oh, and before I go, that thing's not really dead."

Cris, the Spade, and the Mech wheeled around to the human-Spade that was lying on the work bench. After the hologram faded away…nothing happened. The group relaxed a little. Then the human-Spade's eyes looked directly at them.

With astonishing agility, it leapt off of the work bench and onto the ceiling, where it dug its Spade arms into in order to stay attached. It then leapt off of the ceiling and onto Cris, and both went tumbling down.

Cris was hit several times by the thing's arms, but the shield withstood the blows. She shook the human-Spade off, and the group fired. With almost impossible reflexes, it dodged the series of bullets, then leapt onto the mech.

The human-Spade already had its Jackhammer attached, so it fired a long burst into the head-turret of the mech at point-blank range, sending small chunks of metal flying around. The mech whined and whirred in pain, and tried to shake the thing off.

Cris risked hitting the mech and fired three carbine slugs into the human-Spade. The bursts impacted against the thing, but a faint shimmer went around its body instead.

_They just had to install the energy shielding on that dang thing, didn't they?_ Cris thought in dismay.

With a final burst, the mech doubled over itself, and fell dead to the ground. The human-Spade stepped off of the head-turret and stared with bloodshot eyes at the remaining soldiers.

The human-Spade aimed at the Spade, but hesitated slightly. The Spade saw it all in the thing's eyes.

"It's okay," the Spade spoke gently, "It's okay. Just calm down. We are brothers in creation. There is no need to hurt me or my friend here. This Lylatian is my friend."

The thing took direct aim at Cris.

"Maybe I shouldn't have told it you were a Lylatian."

"Ya think?" Cris grumbled.

Apparently, the human-Spade had downloaded orders to attack any Lylatian, so it lunged for Cris once more. She responded by emptying the remaining bullets in her carbine's current clip into the thing, sending a mixture of red blood and oil spraying everywhere. The thing fell to its knees, and Cris fired a plasma burst into its head. It fell to the ground.

"Sorry about that," Cris apologized.

"It's alright," the Spade cocked his head. "Self-defense was how we were sent into containment. It's perfectly understandable."

"Thanks," Cris nodded. "Now let's get moving. I'm really not in the mood of meeting more of these guys." She emphasized the last few words by pointing at the body of the human-Spade…which was no longer there.

"Ohhh…crap," Cris cursed.

* * *

Second of five parts in chapter 11. This one's pretty short, but it gets the job done. A new enemy type- the Sentry- is introduced...and also a gruesome Spade that's only partway through the alteration process that shows up only here...

Like I said- gory! Especially since Cris'll get a new melee weapon in the next part!


	18. Chapter 11, Part 3: Darkness Reigns

Chapter 11, Part 3: Darkness Reigns

"Where the hell did it go?" Cris asked, bewildered that the thing she seemingly killed disappeared without a trace, and so quickly, too.

"I don't know," the Spade replied. "Our only option is to keep moving and be careful."

_No kidding,_ Cris thought. She then nodded, "Alright, let's get going, then."

The two quickly returned to the T-junction-lined-hallway and decided that it wouldn't really matter where they went, just as long as they reached an objective. They went down a series of corridors, hallways, and passages, searching for any sign of the main generator room, an electromagnetic jammer, or Iradanus' quarters.

After about twenty minutes of brisk walking and searching through rooms, the pair came to a dead end.

"What?!" Cris exclaimed, "You've got to be joking me! We came all this way to get to a dead end?"

"You know," the Spade spoke, "dead ends usually mean there ought to be something good nearby."

"As in?"

The Spade thought a little bit, then snapped his head up as if he got an idea. He fired a long Jackhammer into the dead end. To Cris's surprise, it went through the wall instead.

"Hologram," the Spade observed. "Told you so."

"Well, hey, don't get so cocky 'bout it."

Cris pulled back the action on her sniper carbine, removed the clip, flipped it over to reveal the fresh clip attached to it, loaded it into its slot, then recocked the carbine- all with one hand, and it had the SMG in it too.

"How do you do that?" the Spade asked.

"It's called finger coordination," Cris answered. "You wouldn't know a thing about it."

The Spade flicked his Jackhammer arm, and more spines took the place of the ones he used.

"I don't think I would even need that anyways."

"Pfft, showoff."

The two went through the holographic wall, and found a small room with a stairwell at the other end. As they neared the stairwell, a light flickered for just a second over the first few stairs, revealing the shadowy silhouette of the human-Spade.

Both of them released a firestorm of plasma, bullets, and Jackhammer shards. The light flickered off, and a shower of sparks flew everywhere from the projectiles. The light flickered on again a few times, and the human-Spade was gone.

"Dang, this guy's good," Cris remarked. "You would think that he would be confused and off-balanced."

"I know," the Spade nodded in agreement. "There's something weird about that thing."

Cris and the Spade proceeded up the stairwell to the top landing, which led to a doorway. At the top was a sign that read, "Aufmerksamkeit! Aufmerksamkeit! Pest-Art Probestücke woran!"

"Wow," Cris sighed. "You understand that?"

"Nope," the Spade replied. "It's German, a human language. I wasn't given the translation data."

"Great," Cris bit her lip, "We go onward?"

"We're supposed to search the entire facility, and the human-Spade is probably in there. We go onward."

Cris kicked the door, but to her surprise, her foot bounced off, causing her to land on her rear.

"Damn, that thing's solid," Cris remarked, getting off of the floor. "They must be really serious about keeping us out."

"Or keeping something in," the Spade added. "Now, let me have a look."

The Spade went up to the door, and put his arms in between the slits that separated the door from the wall. He then sliced up and down, then tapped the door. It fell into the room.

"You're such a showoff."

"I'll take that as a sign of approval."

The two cautiously went into the room, and scanned each corner. The room was actually some sort of observation deck, with a large window pane at the end of the room. The two went up to it, and gasped in horror. On the other side of the window pane was some sort of testing area below, and Lylatian soldiers, Spades, and mechs were scattered throughout the room. There was also another type of being in there.

One of them looked sort of like a grayish spider about two feet in length, six inches in width, and a foot in height. It had five legs- two at the sides and one in front. It had a bulbous eye and a set of three small maws located above the leg, which was a part of a tube-like head. The thing looked practically harmless, considering the large amounts of troops in the room. However, there was one fact that made them extremely dangerous- there were at least a few hundred in the testing area with the troops.

The spider-like creatures fell easily to the might of bullets, plasma, and lasers, but most of them kept on dashing towards the troops. One fellow was unlucky enough to have one of the creatures latch onto his back. He screamed in panic, and then tried to shake it off. The creature then stuck its front leg behind the helmet of the soldier. The creature then forcefully pushed its front leg all the way through the head of the soldier's helmet, and it came out the front of the helmet with a sound that was mixed with a squish and a crack. After the soldier fell dead to the ground, the creature removed its leg, and leapt for another soldier. Multiple soldiers and Spades met the same fate, and mechs soon had so many of the monsters on them that they, too, fell under their sheer numbers. After a few minutes, all twenty soldiers, ten Spades, and three mechs died before the creatures.

"My gods," Cris gasped. "What the hell are those things?!"

"What, you didn't read the sign?"

Both turned to see Iradanus's hologram float behind them.

"Why do you only do that to us?" the Spade asked.

"Actually, I've paid multiple visits to the others already," Iradanus replied. "Poor soldiers. They just can't understand German. I mean, 'Attention! Attention! Plague-type Specimens Ahead!' should have given them fair warning."

"So that's what the sign read," Cris understood.

"Yes," Iradanus smiled. "These specimens are called the Plague, and I don't need to explain why they are given the name. Beautiful creatures. They stab their prey through the back of their head and leave the females to lay their eggs in them. When the babies emerge, they feed on the carcass. A brilliant survival evolution for creatures only a few months old. We don't even need to feed them."

"Why in the world do you create these monsters?" the Spade growled. "You have no right to mess with the power of science to create these!"

"Actually I do," Iradanus chucked. "The Plague were originally to be used as soldiers in the army. However, they proved too dangerous to handle, so we left them here. Several projects were to be used for the creation of soldiers, but only the Spade project succeeded. Well, partially succeeded, anyways."

"Iradanus, you little-" the Spade began.

"Ah, you might not want to finish that sentence," Iradanus waved his finger at him, "since I was considering whether or not to give you the location of the secondary auxiliary generator."

Cris's eyes widened and she asked, "Where is it?"

"Down there through that door."

The two looked at where he pointed. There was a door a few dozen meters away…at the end of the testing area infested with the Plague.

"You're joking," Cris stood there, mouth agape.

"Would I lie to you?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Cris grumbled.

"Come on then," Iradanus taunted them. "It's your only lead to its location. Hop to it. I'd love to see how you'd make it…or die trying." And with that, the hologram disappeared.

"He just loves to see us suffer," Cris sighed. "So how do we get over there?"

"Hm," the Spade put an arm to the bottom of his head like how a regular person would scratch his chin, "That door's approximately…thirty-two meters away from us. It also happens to be after a twenty-foot drop into a room full of Plague specimens... Commander Willis, do you have any grenades on you?"

"Why is everyone so formal with me?" Cris asked to no one in particular. She then answered, "No. I, uh, seemed to have forgotten to pick some."

"Well that's not an option, I guess," the Spade shook his head. "We need some kind of explosive, or at least a distraction…do you need that SMG?"

"Sort of," Cris replied, "but if we need to use it, go on right ahead. What do you have in mind?" She asked this as she handed her sidearm to the supersoldier.

The Spade explained, "We all know that plasma is extremely powerful against organic matter, which is exactly what we need. Now, we also happen to be in a research facility, no? Well, what's usually in a laboratory?"

Cris thought for a moment, then smiled, "Materials that can be used as improvised explosives."

"Exactly," the Spade spun his head around. "So do you notice anything we can use?"

Cris looked around the room and found a small desk that was topped with several test tubes and beakers. The ones she found most interesting were labeled "Sulfur" and "Sodium."

Cris turned back to the Spade, "I get your idea now. Let's do this."

The Spade quickly dismantled the FAMAS-67 and discarded all but the firing mechanism and the plasma charge. In the meantime, Cris gathered the test tubes she saw earlier, along with an empty beaker. She broke the neck off of the beaker, and the supersoldier took the sodium canisters and sulfur from her and gently placed them inside the beaker, with the SMG's firing mechanism in between them. He then placed the plasma charge on top of everything else.

The Spade asked, "Are you ready?"

"Hell, yeah," was Cris's answer. The Spade broke the glass of the observation window, which attracted the attention of every Plague specimen inside. That's when Cris chucked the beaker into the middle of the large crowd.

When the beaker impacted against the ground, the sulfur was ignited from abrasion from the SMG's firing mechanism and the glass around it- basically like striking a match against sandpaper. That, in turn, set destroyed the canisters containing sodium and a small, fiery explosion occurred due to sodium's exposure to air and heat. What the two had assembled was basically a makeshift Molotov cocktail, but with one major difference. The small explosion heated up the plasma charge, which created a second, more intense plasma explosion that sent a large cloud of stinging plasma vapor everywhere. The Plague specimens close by were instantly disintegrated, while those who accidentally breathed in the deadly cloud died a moment later.

"I love science," the Spade spun his head. The two of them started firing into the crowd of surviving Plague. Due to the confusion of the improvised explosive, they fell easily to the combined assault.

After the cloud of plasma vapor dissipated, the two leapt down to the floor, and dashed for the doorway. If all went according to plan, the secondary auxiliary generator should be nearby. The Spade casually opened the door…and the human-Spade leapt right out and cleaved him in three.

Cris cursed and fired into the human-Spade, but it easily sidestepped the bullets, then fired a Jackhammer burst into her. A flurry of light screens and sparks protected her from the onslaught, and she returned with a trio of carbine slugs.

The human-Spade's energy shielding deflected the rounds, and it leapt at her. She leapt to the side, then rolled, resulting in her getting in back of the human-Spade. Cris swung her carbine's bayonet at the thing's back, sending a small shockwave of energy outwards. The human-Spade's energy shielding was depleted.

It sort of growled at Cris, then leapt high into the air. She searched around for the creature, and it landed at her side and did a sweep kick, then whacked her with its two Spade arms while she was in midair.

Cris landed with a solid thump against the wall, and her head struck against something hard on the wall. A little dazed, she stood up and found a glass rectangular box on the wall labeled "Rottura per l'ascia del fuoco". She had absolutely no clue what it read, but she smashed the front open anyway. The glass easily shattered, and inside the box (Cris couldn't believe her luck) was a fire axe.

She yanked the fire axe out of its resting place and turned back to the human-Spade, now with a look of concern on its grotesque face. Regardless, it dashed for the white vulpine, who ducked under a double slash, then tackled the creature into the wall. There, she began to quickly swing the fire axe repeatedly at the human-Spade. Blood and oil splattered across her visor, and she kept at it. After several slashes, Cris stopped and stepped back. She wiped the blood off of her visor and looked at what remained of the human-Spade.

Cris almost vomited inside her helmet. She had almost entirely gutted the human-Spade, and it slumped down against the wall. She had chopped off one of its Spade arms, and the slashes she made to the chest had practically spilled out a mix of electronic equipment and gore. She turned away from the disgusting body, discarded her empty clip, and loaded in a fresh magazine. She then exchanged weapons- the fire axe now in her dominant left hand and the sniper carbine in her right. The vixen started through the doorway.

* * *

Unfortunately, Cris had not even noticing the dark aura separating itself from the human-Spade's carcass. The aura formed a humanoid shape, and then merged with the surrounding shadows. The strange being followed the fox down the hallway…

* * *

Cris came across a series of doorways, and she groaned in disgust. _Why can't research facilities just be small and simple?_ she thought.

She started the all-too-boring procedure of bashing or kicking open doors and searching the insides. _Storage room, no. Janitor closet, weird for a place like this, but no. Computer room, sadly no, _Cris thought as she kicked down the corresponding doors. She then kicked down another door and came across a small lavatory. _Well, a girl's gotta make herself presentable, right?_ she thought.

The lavatory was small and cramped, much like ones on an airplane. It had a small toilet and a sink with a mirror above it. She looked into the mirror, and found that she was covered in blood, oil, and small bits of gore. Disgusted, she went to the sink, splashed some water on her armor and wiped the material off. She looked back into the mirror and found her same reflection…except there was an identical reflection right next to hers. Cris wheeled to where the reflection's owner was…or at least should have been. No one was in the lavatory with her. She was all alone. Right about now, she wished she had actually taken a large squad with her.

Cris gazed back at the mirror and found her own reflection as a rotting skeleton, worms crawling into her eye sockets of her skull, which was locked in an everlasting scream, and jumped back in surprise, landing on her rear. For one of the few times in her life, she was afraid. But this wasn't just any type of fear- it was absolute and unrelenting.

She dared to look back into the mirror, and found her reflection to be unchanged. To test that it was actually her own, she waved her arms randomly, and the reflection followed each movement. It was hers.

The white vulpine shuddered and hurried out of the lavatory. Unbeknownst to her, the reflection remained in the mirror as she left, smiled wickedly, then merged with the shadows once more…

Cris was starting to loose control of her body now. Her hands began to shake wildly, and her palms became hot and sweaty inside the armor. She looked from one corner of the room to the next, and she could feel the adrenaline pumping to her head. She suddenly felt as if someone were there with her, and spun around, fire axe raised and carbine ready. Nothing was there. Only shadows and darkness.

Despite the fact that this would usually comfort the average person, that fact only made her feel even more afraid. Her gut instincts had never let her down before, especially during an adrenaline rush.

_I just want to get the hell out of here, _Cris thought to herself. _Please may there be a way out of this infernal place!_

Cris bashed open a last door and found yet another hallway lined with T-junctions. Then she saw the pile of drool that the shock trooper made. Iradanus had led her right back to where she had started.

"That freaking human!" Cris whispered harshly to herself. "He lied!" Out of anger she slammed the wall with her fire axe. The thud reverberated through the station, and a series of squeaks and whines was heard, followed by light footsteps.

_Aw, crap,_ she thought.

A flood of Plague specimens came around the bend and started toward her. Cris started picking them off with her carbine, but she knew her efforts would be futile. The gripping fear binding her made her aim abnormally unsteady, and the advancing flood of Plague was getting closer and closer when…

Several brilliant beams of orange energy set fire to the nearby Plague, making them sort of dance before falling to the ground. A trio of centipede-like Sentries came from around the corner, firing their advanced DE beams at the crowd of Plague. The specimens hissed and retreated back into the depths of the facility.

A Sentry turned to her and motioned to her weapons, then at theirs. The message was clear- they wouldn't harm her if she didn't harm them.

_Of course!_ Cris thought. _They are supposed to contain the specimens around here! They just want to be left alone to do their jobs!_ She nodded in understanding and the Sentries went on.

"Wait!" she shouted to them. The machines turned towards her, and she asked, "Do any of you know where the secondary auxiliary generator is?"

A Sentry arched its head upwards and projected a small map of the research facility. A green dot indicated her current position, and a blinking red dot indicated the generator's. It was actually close by, and once she activated it, no more dark hallways and deactivated equipment!

"Thanks," Cris spoke. "Carry on." The Sentries clacked at each other, and went down a nearby T-junction, leaving her all alone once more. She actually felt brimming with energy, and fear seemed like an impossibility to her.

She came across a large door with a keypad lock. The white lupine merely cocked her head and sunk her fire axe into the console, then rammed the door open.

Inside was a small room with a large, barrel shaped object that took up most of the space- the generator. Cris walked up to the activation console, and searched for something that would turn the generator on. After a few seconds, she found a switch labeled "Reboot".

_Now why can't the rest of the signs here be that simple? _Cris thought to herself. She pulled the switch. A loud, resonating hum filled the air as the lights in the room and outside hallway lit up. Hopefully, so would the rest of the research facility. She smiled from a job well done, and turned around…to bump right into a humanoid shape, and she jumped in fright.

The being was about a meter taller than her- almost touching the ceiling. Its body was dark brown and looked exactly like decaying flesh. One arm was extremely large and out of proportion while the other was shrunken and withered with a knife-like middle finger. It was basically a human, or that's what a person would have called it before looking at its face. Its whole face was twisted and distorted. The mouth was sideways and lied where the left eye should have been. A set of three empty eye sockets lay at the temple, chin, and on the left cheek. The flesh around the middle of the face was gnarled and heavily wrinkled.

Just looking directly into the face of the grotesque creature filled Cris with resolute fear, darkening all airiness inside of her, and she tried to get the hell out of the way. However, her body resisted movement and all she could do is gaze at the monstrosity. The creature gave of a mix between a howl and a shriek, piercing the air with its infernal wail, and sticky drool flew from its mouth and onto Cris's armor.

Meanwhile, a Sentry came through the doorway and fired its advanced DEB cannon at it. The being merely held up its hand, and a wave of pure darkness formed a shield around it. The beam seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness, and the creature shifted its attention to the Sentry's shadow, which lay parallel to its own. The creature slammed its gigantic arm down on the shadow, and the Sentry itself was flattened into the ground by some supernatural force.

The monster turned back to Cris, still paralyzed by fear. The creature raised its arm above her shadow, and Cris's instincts finally kicked in. She leapt away, making her shadow do the same.

Despite the fact that the monster was several yards away when it tried to attack her shadow, she still was blasted back by an invisible force. Dazed, Cris stood back up, and the creature tackled her to the ground.

While she was flat on her back, the creature knelt down on all fours on top of her. It opened its mouth, and gave off its hideous howl-shriek. All happiness, confidence, and anything related to them vanished from her thoughts, instead replaced by fear that consumed every recess of her mind. Her entire body went cold, and she even shivered from it. Only negative thoughts filled her mind now. She was going to die. Die. Die. Die. She was going to be gutted, ripped from limb to limb. Her heart was hammering like crazy at her ribcage and was reaching its peak.

The thing lifted up its gigantic arm, then stopped it mid swing. If it was possible, the creature made a face of extreme pain and anguish. It fell on top of Cris, and she regained control over her body.

Cris pushed the putrid body off of hers, and stood up. Near where the back became the neck were two large holes.

"You owe me, big time."

She swiveled around to see Adder, with his helmet removed. His fangs were exposed; he had injected his deadly neurotoxin into the creature. More importantly, Adder had saved her. Saved her _life_.

"You have absolutely no clue how close I am to upchucking from that," Adder made a queasy look, then reattached his helmet. "That taste will be burned into my mind."

Cris, the darkness clouding her mind renewing itself with light and brevity, ran up and embraced an astonished Adder.

"Thank you, Adder," Cris cried. "Thank you so much! I'm alive! I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive!"

"Um," Adder paused obviously surprised. "Okay, then. Uh, you're welcome?" Cris finally let go of him and blushed.

"Oh," she scratched the back of her head, realizing how brash and bold the act was. "Sorry. Just…eh, y'know…"

"It's alright, Cristi-…Cris."

"Well, finally! How long did it take for you to actually call me that?"

"Well, um…ah," Adder stuttered, then changed the subject. "W-we should get going. Now that you activated the generator, we should find Iradanus now."

"Okay," Cris agreed, "but what the hell was that thing?"

Adder answered, "Believe it or not, I encountered one of them before this. It's the Epitome of Shadow. Basically, it uses illusions and trickery in order to get close to its victim." Cris then remembered the mirror in the lavatory. The Epitome of Shadow was with her all along.

"Epitomes of Shadow," Adder continued, "cannot affect the physical form of the body. It can only affect its shadow, which in turn, affects its owner. For example, if it punches your shadow, it'll feel like it's knocking the living crap out of you."

"Alright," Cris nodded, "that's enough of an explanation for me. Now let's go find Iradanus."

"Finally!" Adder smiled. He cocked his signature 40-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, then frowned, "Uh…Cris?"

"What?" she asked, puzzled. The white vixen turned around and groaned, "Oh, no, not again!"

The body of the Epitome of Shadow had simply vanished without a trace.

* * *

What, did you think that the Epitome of Voltage was the only literal freak of nature in the humans' arsenal? XD

Yep, the new enemy types just keep on coming. You can thank my imagination for that.

Part 3 of 5 for chapter 11, and here we see a little more of the Adder-Cris thing... As well as a few freaky scenes. Cris with a fire axe versus a possessed partial Spade corpse. Woohoo!


	19. Chapter 11, Part 4: Iradanus

Chapter 11, Part 4: Iradanus

Cris and Adder exited the generator room, and headed back into the multitude of hallways. Shiny, white bulkheads composed much of the hallways, and the research facility, previously having an austere, hostile feel, now procured a strange sense of security with the bright light fixtures.

"Dang, why does this happen so much?" Cris bit her lip, thinking about the Epitome of Shadow.

"Well, look on the bright side," Adder replied, "It can't move that quickly in the light, so it can't be too far away from us."

"And how is that a good thing?"

"Because not too many things can't stand up to a fire axe, a sniper carbine, and a 40-gauge, semi-automatic shotgun with a multi-shot grenade launcher."

"Good point."

The snake and the vulpine eventually came across a hallway, whose bulkheads splattered with blood and gore, as well as (Cris was just about ready to puke) dismembered body parts.

"I think we just found out how to track it," Cris spoke, who was having difficulty keeping her tea and bagel with butter _in_ her stomach, "Just follow the trail of blood and gore. Heh…lovely…"

The two cautiously followed the path of bodily material, and sure enough, came across a doorway, with the door ripped open. Adder took out his current clip and replaced it with a new magazine. Cris lifted her fire axe over her head, ready to strike and held her sniper carbine as far out as her reach could allow.

Adder entered the doorway first, along with Cris. Sure enough, the Epitome of Shadow was at the other end of the room, and several dozen squads (not individual soldiers, read squads) of Lylatians and Spades were firing into it. Instead of blood splattering out of it, small bits of shadow came out in puffs in its place. The Epitome howled-shrieked and put and end to the onslaught with its boisterous, earsplitting call. It then swung its larger arm across their shadows, and the soldiers and Spades respectively acted in the same way, flying in different directions and perishing on impact against the unforgiving bulkheads.

The creature stared directly at the two, and sort of smiled in its grotesque way. A hiss sounded off behind Cris, and she wheeled around. The doorway they had just come through was now barricaded by a veil of darkness. It then made an upwards heaving motion with its arms. Dark auras enveloped the bodies of the soldiers and Spades it just killed, and the bodies reanimated themselves, and gazed with unseeing eyes toward their prey, namely Adder and Cris.

"You've got to be kidding me," Cris groaned.

The Epitome of Shadow cackled, and then punched its way out of the room, while the reanimated soldiers began to converge on Cris and Adder.

_Great, _Cris thought. _Just great. How the hell do I get myself into these messes?_

The vulpine quickly began to take down each reanimated corpse with a precise shot to the head with her carbine or hacked at any one of them that got too close. Adder, on the other hand, launched a grenade to send body parts and blood flying everywhere, then fired several shotgun blasts, each one mowing down at least two of the incoming undead. Apparently, the undead bodies had limited intelligence, aside from their motor skills, and just tried to get close enough to one of them in order to attack them, completely ignoring their weapons. However, there were several dozen of them…

"There are too dang many of them!" Cris exclaimed as she beheaded a Lylatian soldier with her axe, covering her in blood once more.

"At least be thankful they're stupid!" Adder shouted back as he mowed down several close enemies at once.

Despite Adder's semi-comforting words, it became obvious that there were still way too many of the enemies. Sooner or later, they would be completely overtaken. It would probably be sooner, as Cris slammed the last double-clip into her carbine, and Adder emptied another of his last magazines.

Then, a quick flurry of small zapping noises came from behind the onslaught of the undead, mowing them down respectively. The reanimated soldiers turned around to see an albino pit viper in heavy armor carrying three things- two Uzi-32s and a big, childish grin.

"Well it's about time you showed up!" Adder growled.

"Hey, better late then never!" Ace shot back. He then began to fire extended bursts from his plasma Uzi-32s, which began to thin out the crowd of reanimated soldiers. Along with Adder's and Cris's support, what once used to be a room full of zombie-esque monsters was now covered wall to wall to floor (and even ceiling) with blood and body parts. Cris even had to wipe the red fluid off of her visor in order to see.

"Aww," Ace whined. "That's it?"

"You actually want _more_ of these things?" Cris cocked an eyebrow at the albino.

"Well, duh!" Ace giggled childishly. "It gets so boring without anything going on."

Adder shook his head and muttered, "Some things just never change."

"Whatever," Ace rolled his red, slit-like eyes. "Now, can we get going? It's getting bored already."

"I don't know about you, Ace," Cris sighed, "but we're getting awfully low on ammo. We can't spare too many more shots if we come across that Epitome of Shadow again."

Ace stared blankly at her and spread his arms out and gestured to the mass of dead bodies, "Did you not just slaughter a whole group of _weapon-carrying_ undead? Duh!"

Cris stared at what was left of the dead-undead soldiers and Spades. Adder and Cris began to sift through the remains to try to find anything they could use. Adder found a suitable LT34W Minigun, and ditched his shotgun. Cris picked up on of her favorites- an Overheat DEB sniper rifle with a ton of charge left, but she had to abandon both her carbine and her fire axe. The least she could do is salvage the bayonet. Both grimaced from the fact that everything they had just salvaged was drenched in blood and/or oil- even most of the bullets in Adder's extremely long magazines.

"Hah, hah!" Ace giggled, then chanted. "You-have-to-use-blood-drenched-weapons, you-have-to-use-blood-drenched-weapons!"

"Ace, please," Cris grumbled, "We're close enough to barfing already, thank you."

"Okay, fine," Ace pouted. "Be that way."

Adder, Cris and Ace made their way through the punched-open doorway and back into the brightly lit hallways…or rather, the now light-devoid hallway.

"What?" Cris asked in disbelief, "I thought I turned on the secondary auxiliary generator!"

"You did," Adder pointed out. "The lights are blown out." He motioned towards the shards of glass that littered the floor. Then, everyone snapped their heads up to what sounded like hushed crying from what seemed to be a child. Everyone went quiet, and then hurried toward the origin of the sound.

After weaving through a network of passageways, they came across a little human girl, probably no older than four-years-old, who was weeping into her dress.

"Uh," Adder tried to find the words to speak. "Hi?"

The little girl lifted up her head. Her eyes were red from the tears, and she clearly was frightened.

"Are you going to help me?" the girl asked, "My papa brought me here. They put all these weird needles into me and kept me in a padded room. I escaped but," she broke into tears again, "now I'm all alone and I'm scared."

"Don't worry, shh," Cris hushed. "Shhh. It's going to be alright. Just follow us, and we'll make sure you'll be alright."

"You will?" the girl opened up her eyes again, and smiled, "Will you play with me first?"

"Uh, guys," Ace frowned. "I don't like this."

"You _will_ play with me," the girl stood up and smiled devilishly, and spoke again in a deeper voice, "or else."

The girl giggled, and warped in bodily proportions until she became the gnarled, rotten body that was the Epitome of Shadow.

"Play with me," the Epitome spoke in what seemed to be a mix of several voices, "Play with me. Play with me. Or die. Or die." It gave off a final, evil, giggle and merged with the shadows.

"Aw, crap," Cris cursed.

"Hey, no cussing allowed! For that you have to play a guessing game!"

Adder and Cris turned to find Ace…but another Ace was right beside him. The two quickly began to target one Ace, then targeted the other.

"Come on, guys," Ace number one spoke. "It's me!"

"Don't believe him," said Ace number two in the same voice. "It's me!"

"Alrighty then," Adder's eyes began to look around in search of a proper question to ask, "What's your last name?"

"Hawkins!" the Aces sounded off at the same time.

"Okay, then," Adder raised a scaly eyebrow. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-six in snake years!" they spoke again in unison.

"Oh," Adder began to frown. "Why was Brutus mad at you today?"

"I dismantled the mini-oven to make my antimatter cannon!" both sounded off again.

"Crap," Cris bit her lip. "This could be a problem. How are we going to find out who's the real Ace?"

"The same way we have to find out who's the real Adder."

Cris spun to find that there were now two Aces _and_ two Adders.

"This is gonna be a nerve wrack." Cris put a both hands to her head.

"Tell me about it."

"Don't tell me," Cris closed her eyes. "There's another Cris right beside me."

"Not exactly."

She looked to see two other Crises beside her.

"This is gonna give me a migraine." Cris number two sighed.

"It's already giving me one," Adder number one grunted.

"Hey, I finally found you guys!"

Cris turned to find two Wolfs standing next to each other.

"Wonderful," Ace number two grumbled. "Well it can't get any worse, can it?"

"It just did."

Now two Falcos waltzed into the mess. Cris just stared in disbelief.

"Epitome of Shadow," Cris thought out loud, "how do we expose it?" A grin stretched across her muzzle as she got an idea, "Close your eyes. I have a flash grenade"

A few of the people in the room closed their eyes in preparation, and several flinched. She then fired a DE burst right into the ones who did.

After several shots, the only ones left standing were a single Ace, Adder, and Cris. Standing on its knees in the center was a tired Epitome of Shadow.

"Wow," it chuckled sadistically as it heaved itself up, "You're good. No one's ever beaten me at that! Let's play another game! We'll play hide-and-go-slaughter! Think fast!"

The Epitome of Shadow lifted into the air and spread out its arms with a loud grunt. A pattern of dark shapes went around it, and a room materialized around the trio. It was of a circular shape, with many different objects spread around it- lamps, desks, sofas, rugs, portraits, and many more.

The voice of the Epitome seemed to come from everywhere, "I'm hiding as one of the objects in this room. If you guess right, you win! If not, you die! Good luck!"

"I'm really hating this mission right about now," Adder muttered. "How the hell are we supposed to find the thing?"

"Easy," Ace smiled. "Just blast everything you see."

"Meh," Cris rolled her eyes, "even Falco could've thought of that, but it works for me."

The trio began to blast every square-inch of the room. The walls became pockmarked with bullet holes and plasma or DE scars. Wooden objects sent splinters in all directions, while glass objects sent a flurry of dazzling shards everywhere. Adder shredded, Cris fried, and Ace shattered a large majority of the objects in the room.

Finally, there was nothing left in the room to shoot except for the frowning reflection of the Epitome of Shadow in a mirror.

"Not fair! Not fair!" it pouted. "You cheated!"

"This was always foul play anyways," Cris shook her head. Adder grinned and fired a two-second burst of his minigun into the mirror, which added to an astounding 20 rounds. The Epitome howl-shrieked once more, and the room faded back into the hallway where the group originally was. The Epitome of Shadow was on its hands and knees.

"Cheaters never prosper," the Epitome grumbled, "but you guys won!"

"Yep," Adder smiled. "Now how should I put this?" He chucked a flash grenade that landed right in front of the Epitome of Shadow, while everyone else closed their eyes, "As you would have put it, 'buh-bye.'"

The grenade detonated, filling the small corridor with light. A final howl-shriek erupted from the distorted lips of the Epitome before it was vaporized by the light.

"Finally," Ace sighed. "It's dead."

"Ya know, Ace," Adder smiled, "that Epitome of Shadow turned out to be a lot like you?"

"And how, may I ask?"

"For one, you both act like little children."

"Something wrong about getting in touch with your inner child easier than others?"

"Just sayin'."

The trio made their way deeper into the bowels of the research facility. As they pressed on, a faint orange glow seemed to emit from wherever they were heading. Cris noticed that the smell of smog filled the air. With a flick of their tongues, the two serpents also noticed that fact, and silently readied their weapons and cautiously made their way forward.

Eventually, the small squad reached what appeared to be some sort of boiler room. Large, cylindrical boilers ran across the length of the room, some spilling out ferrous material. Stairs went between every of the boilers and led to the catwalks overhead. Ash filled the air, and Cris could feel her nostrils getting singed.

Adder nodded toward her and Ace and they slowly proceeded in squad formation. Cris faced backwards and covered the rear of the squad, Ace moved up to the middle and trained his Uzi-32s on opposite sides of the squad, and Adder faced forward and led the small group towards the end of the room.

Cris found it hard to maintain a controlled breath in the burning heat from the boilers. She, along with the rest of the squad, coughed every so often, and they could do little to contain them.

Adder put up a hand, and the squad halted in their tracks. The sound of extremely heavy footsteps and rattling chains filled the air. The snake then spread out his fingers, and the squad dispersed, finding hiding positions. Cris made sure that her Overheat was a maximum power, and peeked around the corner.

A strange entity rounded the corner. It had a selection of ancient gauntlets, greaves with foot attachments, a breastplate, and a helm…that all floated in midair without anything visible wearing them. The gauntlets both had long chains attached to them- each connected to what appeared to be heavy medieval flails. It gasped every so often as it slowly walked with the labor of the heavy flails weighing it down.

Suddenly, Cris felt a scratchy feeling in her throat. Realizing that it could endanger her life, she tried to contain it, but couldn't. She let out a barely audible cough…but it was enough to attract the attention of the entity, which stared directly at her.

Cris and the others immediately fired into the entity, though with little results. The bullets either went through the space between the floating pieces of armor or ricocheted off of the armor themselves. The only thing they actually accomplished was giving away their positions to the thing.

The entity gave of a loud screech like that of an eagle or bird of prey, and every piece of its armor shook wildly. A small flame started in its chest, and it blossomed to fill its entire body. The flame took a humanoid shape around the armor and formed arms with hands, as well as legs with feet. A head with glaring, red eyes formed inside the metal helm. The armor stopped shaking, and it gave off another screech.

_Great, _Cris thought sarcastically. _Just great. We just killed an Epitome of Shadow and now we have to deal with an Epitome of Inferno. Such good luck I've been having today._

The group renewed their concentrated fire on the Epitome of Inferno. Now, the bullets were merely incinerated, plasma went right through it, and the Overheat didn't have that great of an effect on it. The Epitome heaved up one of its flails and started twirling it around its head.

"Oh, jeez," Ace grumbled. "Run!"

Cris scattered from her current position as the Epitome of Inferno cast the flail, which struck the boiler next to her. She looked back to see molten material starting to leak out of the boiler.

"Wow," Cris smirked. "This guy has _terrible_ aim."

"Probably because he's not aiming for any of us," Adder remarked. The Epitome started punching holes in the boilers around the room, sending even more ferrous metal into the floor.

"Aw crap," Cris cursed. "Get to the catwalks!"

The trio made their way up the metal stairs as the level of magma started to rise within the room. The three were now safe on the catwalks as the Epitome of Inferno continued to flood the room. Klaxons went off around the room, and red lights flashed around the catwalks. Soon, the bells and warning lights themselves were engulfed by the rising flow of magma, and the room fell silent.

Just as Cris was about to relax, the Epitome of Inferno landed right in front of her. In surprise, she involuntarily fired a long burst of DE into the Epitome, which just shook its flaming head.

Seeing that their teammate was in trouble, Adder and Ace also began to pelt the Epitome with their fire, but with little effect. Then, a stream of Adder's minigun rounds impacted against its breastplate, and the Epitome whined in pain.

Noticing this, the three began to fire their rounds at the armor that the Epitome possessed. Enough concentrated fire caused all of its armor, including the gauntlets, to fly off, along with its flails. Only its helm was left attached. Unfortunately, the result was not to be desired.

Now lightened without the burden of the flails and armor, the Epitome jumped across the room and landed on a narrow catwalk. The Epitome screeched again, and sprouted fiery wings on its back. Then, it put its hands together, and a ruby-colored blade of fire materialized itself between them.

"I really don't think we should have done that," Ace grimaced.

"Ya think?" Cris asked back.

The Epitome of Inferno leapt across the room back towards the group, and Cris leapt out of the way just in time as it brought its blade down on the catwalk where she was earlier and cut clean through it. This caused the catwalk to lean downwards into the magma below, and Cris took hold of a rail in order to prevent from falling into the ferrous material.

Meanwhile, Adder and Ace started firing again into the Epitome, now with no result at all. However, this gave Cris enough time to crawl back onto the other side of the catwalk, which was level now. She turned back to the Epitome of Inferno as it swung its mighty sword at the two, who barely had enough time to dodge each blow. Each swing of its blade caused a molten gash to appear wherever it touched.

_Dangit, _Cris thought. _How the heck do we beat it?_ She scanned the room for anything they could use. Her eyes fell on a fire extinguisher in a glass case. _Duh. A fire extinguisher for an oversized torch._

She leapt at the glass case and smashed it with all her strength. After clearing away the debris, she removed the fire extinguisher.

"Adder!" Cris screamed. The veteran heard her and looked at her after dodging another swing of the Epitome's sword, "Catch!"

She chucked the fire extinguisher and Adder leapt to catch it in his hands.

"Hey, matchbox!" Adder mocked the Epitome, which gazed at him with angry eyes. "Think fast."

Adder pulled off the safety ring and let loose a stream of white powder at the Epitome, who whined in pain as its fire started to get smothered. The snake kept at it with the spraying, and soon, the Epitome of Inferno was nothing more than a collection of ashes with its helm atop.

"Aw, come on," Ace whined in disgust. "I could've easily thought of that!"

"Then why didn't you?" Cris grinned.

"Well, uh, because," Ace stammered. "Um…aw, just shut up!"

Cris shook her head and reunited with the squad, and exited the flooded boiler room through a doorway on the catwalks.

"Okay," Cris sighed, "please tell me that this mission is gonna be a success, 'cuz if this fails, I'm gonna get really ticked off!"

"Well, we can only hope," Adder answered. "After all we've been through, this has gotta work out."

After much more walking, and thankfully, no more enemy encounters, the trio reached a hallway where a crowd of Lylatians, Spades, and mechs were trying to break down a blast door. In the crowd, they found practically every team member of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf mostly unharmed.

Katt, who was nearby, noticed the three and growled, "Well look who decided to show up. About time, too. We found Iradanus's quarters, now hurry up and get it open Ace!"

"You can't rush genius," Ace smiled, and cracked his knuckles. "Now you door-opening amateurs just step aside and let me do the work."

As Ace made his way through the crowd, everyone met with each other and celebrated the fact that they were all okay.

"Hey Aloysius," Cris chuckled, "you alright?"

The old bat, his armor covered head to tow in blood, replied, "Is there something wrong about killing so many damn specimens in this crapped-up facility?"

"Hey, don't get so worked up about it," sighed a nearby Xamuros, also drenched in blood. "You don't have sickles for arms."

"Hey, at least you didn't have to go through a Plague-infested room!" Leon snorted.

"Will everyone just SHUT UP!?"

Everyone in the crowd fell quiet as Ace screamed, "Thank you! Can I at least get some quiet so I can get this door open for you guys?"

"Jeez, sorry Ace," Tallon grinned. "Just open the door for us, please."

Ace opened a plate in the door and started ripping out and reconnecting wires.

"Okay," Ace muttered to himself, "Yeah, that's it…uh-huh…alrighty…done!" And with that, the blast door slid right open, and the crowd rushed inside.

Iradanus's quarters were spacious and brightly lit, with a large window at the end of the room that gave a large panoramic view of the space outside the station, where a lightshow of lasers and DE beams cut through the void from the outside space battle. There was a swivel chair in front of a large desk in front of the window. The sound of clapping hands filled the air.

"Well it's about time you all showed up," came the all-too familiar voice of Iradanus, who spun around to face them. "So how many are dead? About one-hundred-fifty-seven of the three-hundred-twenty twenty that arrived?"

"It's over Iradanus," spoke Fox. "By the order of the Confederation of the United Planets of the Lylat System-" The crowd of troops surrounded the perimeter of the room, "-you are under arrest."

"It pleases me so with all these games," Iradanus smiled and stood up to face everyone. "Even if you _do_ capture me, there will be nothing to stop the conquest of the Lylat System. There are siphoning facilities draining the planetary energy from all of your planets. Already, seventy-five percent of the Lylat System's energy has been drained, including your moons'."

"All bullshit," Slippy cursed. "Once we capture you, we can force you humans to surrender!"

"Oh, yes, I am well aware of that," Iradanus replied. "So tell me- have any of you learned anything while you were at this research facility?"

"This isn't a school, Iradanus," Wolf yawned, quickly getting bored with the conversation. "Just settle down and let us take you into custody."

"I'm surprised that you lesser beings haven't even learned one thing," Iradanus laughed a little, and the blast doors behind the Lylatians, Spades, and mechs closed shut once more.

"Guys," Krystal formed a steeple with her forehead and hands. "I have a really bad feeling about this…"

"Fine," Iradanus continued, "I'll tell you all now. If you haven't noticed yet, nothing is always what they seem to be." His face flickered like static a little, "-is always what they seem to-" Now his whole body flickered, as he repeated his sentence, "-seem to-seem-be."

The body of Iradanus twisted and morphed into the stature of a Hunter, which roared at the Lylatians, whom many of which were cursing. Instead of a DPB cannon and drill on its arms, it instead had several long rods protruding in a web-like fashion from the sides of its arms.

Cris, as well as the rest of the soldiers, fired into the Hunter, which activated the objects on its arms. A long beam of energy ran down the length of each rod then connected with each other to form energy shields. It brought its arms to its sides, causing the shields to envelope the Hunter's body. The projectiles merely impacted against the shield and were disintegrated, the force sending ripples of shockwaves where they hit.

The Hunter curled up into a ball and rolled into a group of soldiers, crushing them underneath its weight. It then uncurled itself, and let the blood and gore evaporate with a sizzle off of its shields.

The Hunter then leapt into the air and rammed one of its shield into a mech, causing it to topple over onto a group of Lylatians and Spades. It then raised its shields to defend against an incoming firestorm.

Cris tried to think of a way to defeat this seemingly impenetrable shield as she fired a multitude of rounds from her Overheat at the monster. How could they stop it? The vulpine noticed something. The Hunter didn't even try to cloak itself of fly. That meant that the shields must drain a lot of energy in order to impair those abilities.

_And whenever something drains energy, _Cris thought and smiled, _there's a power source._

She used to scope on her Overheat to search for something that might power the Hunter's shields. After searching for about a minute, she found a small cylinder on the Hunter's back- probably the power source.

Cris waited for an opportunity to fire at the Hunter, but found few. And those few were constantly blocked by another soldier. Realizing this, Cris knew she needed to get up close to the Hunter.

"Cover me!" she shouted.

The white vulpine dashed toward the Hunter, who quickly turned to face her. It tried to strike her with a shield every so often, and Cris had to dodge many blows. One shield attack managed to hit her, causing her own shields to short out.

Cris waited for the Hunter to make another shield attack, then sidestepped the blow and rolled behind the Hunter. She then smashed the cylinder with the butt of her sniper rifle.

The Hunter growled at her as the shields went down. This allowed the Hunter to be completely mowed down by the hundred-plus soldiers in the room.

Cris smiled to herself knowing that she had helped bring down the beast, and kneeled from the fatigue. Adder went up to her and offered her a hand. She reached up and grabbed it. As Adder hauled her up, Iradanus's hologram appeared on the desk.

"Well it seems you managed to kill my Hunter," Iradanus chuckled. "I've got to say that was quite the show. As you can all plainly see, I have also evacuated the premises, and you fell for my trap!

"Nevertheless, I did promise a computer with intel and a way out, and there they are, on my desk." He motioned towards his computer's hard drive and a control panel.

Aloysius ripped the hard drive out and totted it easily with his hands, while Fox went up and flipped the switch.

A familiar mechanical voice came from the intercom, "Hangar door has been opened and force field has been deactivated." Everyone sighed out of relief, then the voice continued, "Warning- unidentified explosive found in main reactor of facility and is counting down. Evacuation is highly advised."

"Whoops," Iradanus smiled, "I almost forgot to mention that if you flipped the switch, you would also activate a five-hundred megaton explosive. Oh well, you just need to escape before you are all nothing more than particles floating in space. You have…," he checked a watch on his wrist, "approximately T-minus fifty-nine minutes and…fifteen seconds before it goes off. Just try to get off before it explodes!"

"You're a madman!" Xamuros screamed at him. "You can burn in hell, you…you…"

"Fifty-eight minutes," Iradanus spoke. "You might want to get moving. Until next time, if any of you do have one, heh. Congratulations on being so stupid to fall for my plan every step of the way, ha-ha-ha!"

And with that, the hologram faded away.

* * *

Come now, did you really think that Iradanus would make it that easy for them? Well, of course not!

Still more enemies! Epitome of Inferno FTW!

Also, the upcoming part is probably the longest single installment of Contact. And the goriest. You have been warned!!!


	20. Chapter 11, Part 5: Escape

Chapter 11, Part 5: Escape

"Aw, damnit," Fox cursed. "Troops, get in pairs on a Spade and get out of here, NOW!"

With that, Cris went up to a nearby Spade. He didn't ask any questions- he just simply changed into a Longsword and she hopped on. However, Panther climbed on behind her.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Cris exclaimed.

"Relax," Panther replied, "I'm not an idiot to start flattering you at this time. Spade, let's get a move on, already!"

The supersoldier didn't need any coaxing, and sped off as fast as he could toward the hangar. Outside in the hallway, things were already a mess as soldiers scrambled to find a Spade to ride on and get out of the facility before it exploded.

Cris's and Panther's Longsword weaved as best he could through the crowd, though the maneuvers cost them precious time.

"Do you know that fastest way out of this station?" Cris asked the Spade.

"Think so, but I have to ask you this," he answered back. "Do either of you have any explosives or anything that can blow a door open?"

Panther answered by patting the side of the hovercraft with the butt of his rifle/multi-shot grenade launcher.

"Good enough," the Spade spoke. "Now make sure to hold on tight."

With a lurch of speed, their Longsword shot through the rest of the crowd and toward a doorway. Panther blew it open with a shot from his grenade launcher, and they zoomed through the debris field.

Cris grunted as she was hit by a medium-sized piece of metal and asked, "Panther, why am I the one who sits in front?"

"Hey, I just got here, 'k?" Panther shot back.

The door-opening process repeated a few more times, and a few Longswords decided to follow the easy route back by tagging along, their riders helping with the process as well. Every so often, Cris's and Panther's Longsword dropped behind to let the wildcat reload his grenade launcher while another took his place. This allowed one person to always be able to open a route for them.

Right as they zoomed through a destroyed doorway into a wide room, a metal object erupted from one side of the hallway to the other. And the bar was right about four-and-a-half-feet high.

_Aw crap,_ Cris thought. She, as well as the rest of the riders, collided with the metal bar, knocking everyone off of their mounts. The Longswords crashed against another bar of a lower height.

The white vulpine picked herself up from the floor, and she got a look at the metal bar they hit. In truth, it looked more like the handle to some gigantic weapon. Just then, a long, familiar moan sounded off…quite nearby.

An Honor Guard mech blew right through the right wall of the room picking up the handles, which turned out to be its signature axes. It moaned again as it fired a particle beam and killed the Spades. Not only did that mean that four supersoldiers were dead, but if they somehow survived the Honor Guard mech's onslaught, they would all be without a ride.

Cris got her Overheat sniper rifle off of her back and started firing into the mech, though as always, with little effect. The explosives of the other troops seemed to have some effect, but not really to that great of an extent.

_Why do I always get myself into these kinds of things?_ Cris thought to herself as she repeatedly fired into the honor guard mech.

The machine growled, and then brought both of its axes and its two swords down onto the floor, causing everyone to fall over from the shock. A few spurts from its DE Bolt cannon killed off half of the dazed troops while a particle beams killed off everyone else, minus Cris and Panther, who were getting up to their feet.

"How-unh- are we-oof-supposed to kill this guy?" Panther asked incredulously as he dodged blows.

Just then, a loud screech sounded off, causing the light fixtures to shatter and the window outside to crack a little bit. The sound of metal clanking against metal sounded off as a huge, five-legged monster broke through an opposite wall.

This creature was apparently a not-so-tiny-anymore adult Plague at least the size of a small house. While it did retain the shape of the juveniles, it had the smell of rotting flesh and had several corpses- human, Spade, and Lylatian- impaled on the spikes around its body. Its legs now were huge sickles whose ends were stained with fresh blood.

The adult Plague opened its mouth, and instead of a lone tongue looping out, at least a dozen red tentacles erupted from its mouth as it gave off another screech. Both the Honor Guard mech and the adult Plague started to fight, exchanging blows with moans and screeches.

"Quick, let's get out of here while they're distracted!" Cris exclaimed.

"Whoa," Panther stopped her. "We'll get slaughtered trying to go between them. How about we go through one of the holes they made?" Just then, several dozen juvenile Plague specimens came out through the entry hole the adult made, and five Sentries came out of the mech's hole in response.

"You were saying?" Cris cocked an eyebrow.

"Through the middle it is."

The two sprinted for the door on the other side of the room, guns blazing. Cris had to dodge several axe swings and a few stomps from the adult Plague as she crossed the room. As she neared the end, she felt a large tug on her back and realized a juvenile Plague has latched onto her back.

The vixen tried to calm down, but remembering how the Lylatian soldier was stabbed through the back of the head made her blood pump like crazy. She thrashed wildly in order to shake it off, but the creature held a firm grip on her.

"Dangit, Panther, get it off!" Cris screamed.

"Hold still, just hold still!" he shouted back. "I can't get a clear shot!"

She could feel the Plague place a leg behind her skull, and she cried, "Just shoot!"

Panther hesitated for a moment, then fired a laser…and hit Cris on the shoulder. Fortunately, the shot impacted against her shields, and the bright flash caused the Plague to fall off of her shoulder to the ground. The kitsune recovered from the shot and finished the creature off with a stab from her bayonet.

The wildcat kicked down the door and both went through it, gasping for breath.

"You…must have been…a great marksman," Cris spoke sarcastically between breaths."

"Just be lucky you're not dead," Panther growled in response. "Is your shoulder alright?"

"Yeah," Cris sighed. "It's fine. Now let's get the hell out of here before the whole place goes up in flames."

The duo made their way through a few more rooms before they reached a door marked, "Launch Bay".

"Finally! We're home free!" Panther smiled.

"I don't know," Cris muttered. "We've only spent less than ten minutes of our time. It shouldn't be- Panther, no!"

She was too late. The wildcat kicked the door, but surprisingly enough, the door _kicked back_. Panther was sent into a nearby bulkhead by a huge leg.

"Ugh," he groaned. "What the-" Just then, he realized what was wrong, "Oh, crap."

The door flickered a few times before shifting into a Hunter, which roared at them. It had a drill on each arm, both deadly in such tight quarters, which it started up with a pair of ascending whines.

Cris immediately fired a concentrated burst of DE into its head, but it kept on going and whacked her with a drill, causing her remaining shields to short out in a brilliant flash of light. This flash, however, stunned the Hunter for a moment, which gave Panther enough time to fire a grenade into it. Yellow blood and gore splattered all over the bulkheads and, to both of their dismay, onto them as well.

As Cris went let her suit use a light fixture as a charge source for her shields, she growled, "From now on, think before you start kicking down doors. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Panther groaned as he picked himself up off the floor.

The two then began open doors, but always shot them first. Cris cursed as she noticed that the charge for her sniper rifle had diminished to twenty-four percent capacity. She needed to get a new weapon, and ASAP too, as she shot another door, then bashed it open to find an air-conditioning unit.

"Any luck on your side?" she shouted over to the other end of the hallway.

"I got nothing," Panther shouted back. "You got a faster way to do this? We have about forty-four minutes left!"

Cris thought a little bit, then heard the distinct noise of Longsword engines. And lots of them too. She shouted, "Panther! Over here!"

As the wildcat got over to her, she fired a beam of DE into the door nearest to the sound, then kicked it off its hinges. On the other side was a wide hallway, where a Longsword with two passengers whizzed by every now and then. Both of them sprinted as fast as they could along the hallway.

Suddenly, series of whines sounded off in the distance. Cris and Panther halted in their tracks to see several Lylatian grunts and a few Spades backing away from something while shooting it. Then, they were all blown away by two large, red explosions. This was followed by six Drones rounding the corner, and they immediately started blowing holes in the floor with their railguns.

Cris and Panther sought cover behind some rubble blown off from a nearby wall.

"Dangit," Panther grumbled, "Can it get any worse than this?"

Then, two of the Drones then looked at each other, then seemed to nod at one another. The one on the left folded away its railgun, while the one on the right turned upside-down and let its head fold into the body. The hovering mech on the right sprouted three legs that reached for the ceiling, and the one on the left formed two strange sphere's on its sides. After the left Drone hovered underneath the right, they connected with each other. This new mech then spun right side-down, and the spheres started to shimmer before arms materialized- one holding a double-barreled particle beam cannon, and the other forming a large, circular shield. A new, gasmask-esque then erupted from the top portion of the mech and gazed with a set of six photoreceptors at the incoming soldiers. The other four Drones followed the same procedure, creating two more of these "Tandem-Drones".

"Great," Cris closed her eyes. "You just _had_ to ask, didn't you?"

"I was asking hypothetically!" Panther whined.

"I don't care!"

The Tandem-Drones starting wrecking the entire room, causing huge explosions with their particle beams. Many of the incoming troops and Longswords stopped to fight, but with little effect, due to the mechs' large shields, which they just shot around at the Lylatians.

Cris tried to find a chink the defense of the shields; there were many, but they were usually covered by the other Tandem-Drones' movements. She wouldn't be able to spare that many shots either, as her charge was now in the teens.

"Panther, you got any sidearms to spare?" Cris asked as she moved to a different piece of rubble to avoid the incoming particle beams. "I'm running low on my charge!"

"I've got a medium blaster," Panther replied, "but I don't know if it would make that much of a difference."

"I don't care! Just throw the thing over to me!"

The black-furred feline complied with the order, reached to his side and pulled out his blaster, and then tossed it over to Cris, who caught it. She immediately ripped off the scope of the sniper rifle, then salvaged some of the tape from the bayonet and used it to attach the scope to the blaster. After that, she set the power on the Overheat rifle to maximum and closed her eyes, trying to block out the noise of dying soldiers and particle beam explosions to calm herself down and let the adrenaline die down. The vulpine began testing the weight of both weapons, and tried to see how fast she could accurately aim with the pistol.

Cris then threw the Overheat sniper rifle toward the Tandem-Drone, then quickly aimed through the scope of her new blaster, which she began to charge. The firearm opened up into four perpendicular parts with an enlarging sphere of energy in the center, which started out green, then turned to blue half a second later. She then let the adrenaline return to her head, and the rush caused time to seem to slow down. The tip of her thrown rifle came into view, and she waited until the crosshairs were directly over the DE charge. The glowing energy had just turned red after two-and-a-half seconds, and she released the trigger.

The charge shot of the blaster pistol impacted against the sniper rifle, blowing it backwards into the middle of the Tandem-Droid formation. Now roasted by the shot, the directed energy charge sizzled with electricity and then exploded, creating a blinding, orange flash that enveloped the entire passageway. The explosion was so intense that the wind was knocked out of Cris's chest and she crumpled to the ground as every other sound seemingly evaporated from the universe.

After a few moments, the explosion faded, revealing an entirely-razed hallway. Parts of the floor were smoldering- even on fire from the intense blast- and the Tandem-Drones had been blown apart, their remains blackened by soot from the heat. One had lost its whole bottom half, while the other lacked anything but the legs and waist. The third Tandem-Droid, which had been in front of the explosion when it occurred, had been completely wrecked, pieces of it lying strewn across the room.

A low clamor rose from the soldiers around them, then turned into a loud cheer as more and more of them joined. Cris smiled to herself, but then frowned as the cheering suddenly died down, and everybody else raised their weapons.

Cris wheeled around and said for the third time this day, "You've got to be kidding me."

The Tandem-Drone that was nothing more than a set of legs and a waist started to shiver. It then rose from the ground and shook the soot off of its armor. The mech with only its upper body intact also reanimated, and cracked its neck in a mocking sort of way. The top half then floated into the air and connected with the legs and waist. Parts of the dismembered mech soared into the air, and then connected with the body of the new Tandem-Drone making a new one with even more armor than before. Its gaze fell to its now-useless double particle beam cannon, then allowed some pieces of wreckage to form it into a large blade.

Cris dashed to a crater that was caused by a particle beam explosion and started charging her blaster as Panther and the other soldiers and Spades began to pepper the Tandem-Drone with fire. The kitsune released the blast, which the mech easily blocked with its shield, charring where it hit. The Tandem-Drone then lumbered toward a squad of soldiers, and bashed its shield against the middle soldier against his head with a loud crack, then slashed its sword horizontally, cutting the rest in half or in third. Blood stained the bulkheads, and gore splattered on the floor.

Cris barely managed to duck in time as the Tandem-Drone then threw its sword toward her. The blade impacted against the wall behind her, and she was about to fire another barrage of lasers when the back of the sword hit her in the rear of her head, causing her to loose consciousness for a moment. She regained her senses, and saw that the sword was floating back to its master, which caught it as it returned.

Panther took this chance to fire a grenade at the mech, which tried to block with its shield, but the grenade exploded against it, blowing it away, along with the right arm of the mech. Along with a charge shot from Cris, Panther started pulverizing the Tandem-Drone into pieces. After Cris's blaster temporarily overheated and Panther ran out of grenades in his current clip, what was left of the Tandem-Drone was a set of legs.

Cris sighed in relief, but was cut short as the leg sprouted some sort of cannon or launcher from its waist and took aim at the nearest squad. As a _tititititititititi _sound went off, a myriad of energy spheres rushed form the barrel and caused a large series of explosions. The soldiers were blown around like rag dolls a few times before getting ripped to pieces.

"For crying out loud," Cris screamed in disgust, "what does it take to kill this thing?!"

The legs then leapt onto the ceiling and stuck there, firing another barrage of energy spheres, keeping everybody's heads down. Cris managed to avoid the line of fire and fired a blind burst, with only one shot actually hitting its target. The set of legs then fired towards her, unfortunately.

Even though the explosion was comparatively weaker than a grenade, it still made Cris fly a few feet into the air. She rolled on her side to soften the impact, then took direct aim at the legs.

Holding down the trigger, the charge started to charge up as Cris rolled out of the incoming barrage of energy spheres. As she exited the combat roll, she kicked the ground at a forty-degree angle, causing her to go into a sideward leap. During this leap, Cris released the charge shot.

The red energy hit the legs where they connected to the waist, a weak spot about as obvious as an elephant in your living room. Whining from the pain, the legs dropped down to the floor, where they received major punishment from the soldiers' firearms. Pieces of metal flew in all directions, and sparks created a lightshow in the hallway.

After the soldiers emptied their magazines on the lone target, the clamor and lightshow came to an abrupt end. The legs, nothing more than thin joints now, struggled to pick themselves off of the floor, failing miserably. With a final whine, the legs fell limp, and an acrid plume of smoke came from the wrecked components.

"Phew!" Cris huffed. "Finally! Now stay dead!" The vixen staggered from the fatigue accumulated throughout the day, and fell to her knees.

"Now that's what I want in a woman! Need a hand?" Panther came up to her and extended a blood-covered, cramped hand towards her, and she accepted it as the wildcat heaved her off the floor.

"Alrighty, then," Panther sighed. "Now let's get the heck out of here befo-"

He was interrupted by a loud crash as the nearby wall was broken down by what appeared to be a ball of sharp spines. The ball unrolled into an adult Plague specimen, covered in wreckage from the Honor Guard mech it apparently slaughtered, and started stomping and swiping its way through the ranks of surprised infantry.

"Aw, come on," Panther groaned. "Do we ever get a break from all of this?"

"There's no time for chit-chat," Cris scowled at the new threat, "just run!"

The two were, yet again, on the run as the adult Plague spotted its fleeing prey. It curled up into a gigantic sphere once more, and started rolling towards them. As it tumbled after them, it impaled anyone in its way with its multitude of gigantic spines, leaving a trail of myriad puncture holes, blood, and gory substances in its wake.

Cris and Panther ducked through the door just in time as the adult Plague slammed into the wall dividing the rooms, stopping it…at least for the moment.

Panther, nearly cut to pieces by the spines that came through the wall from the Plague, sighed, "I hate Mondays."

"Dangit, Panther," Cris shook her head at him, "today's Tuesday!"

"Same difference," Panther grumbled. "I hate 'em both."

As the Plague started to unfold itself, the white vulpine growled, "There's no time for this, now get moving!"

Both got out of the way just as the adult Plague reared up on its two hind legs, then smashed down the wall with a downwards blow from its three front legs. The monster started after them, causing the floor to shudder with each step, and Cris and Panther fired a small burst of fire when they could. However, the shots seemed to just add up to mere pinpricks to the creature's thick hide and only succeeded in aggravating it further.

Cris charged up her laser once more, then fired a couple seconds after. However, the heat sustained by the blaster from the previous chargings and rapid firing was too much for the laser charge to bear. The blaster literally exploded in her hands. Even though the explosion was extremely weak, the heat that radiated from it caused her fur and skin to stick uncomfortably against her clothes under the armor from the sweat.

Weaponless once more, Cris mumbled sarcastically, "This day just keeps getting better and better."

With firing aside now, she was able to run a little faster, going a little above Panther's pace.

"Panther, not even grenades work against that thing," Cris shouted to her friend, who was gaping in awe of the fact that it just lumbered on through everything he threw at it. "Just holster that thing and run faster!"

Despite his history as one quick to argue, he clasped his rifle to his back and started up to her pace.

"You know," Panther huffed as he sprinted alongside her, "I'm kinda wondering why that thing's not going any faster. You think the hallway's a little small for it?"

"Save your breath and run, dangit!" Cris shouted back.

As they neared another door, Panther leapt into the air and kicked the door down with both feet, then rolled back into the sprint. Even Cris had to be amazed at the physique that could perform that. Unfortunately, that moment of amazement died down from the fact that they were totally surrounded by dozens of Sentries…and boy, did they look ticked off.

As Cris got into a fighting stance and Panther was about to reach for his rifle, a multitude of spikes came from behind. Cris was barely missed by a spine that skinned her helmet. Panther was in no better a situation, with one barely missing his groin.

"Okay then," Cris whistled, "Gotta remember the spikes."

As the Sentries' attention shifted away from the two intruders, Cris and Panther dashed through the other side of the room. The wall was plowed down by the adult Plague, who was instantly bathed in thin thread-like beams from the mechs' advanced DEB cannons.

While Cris kicked the door open, the two were able to achieve some distance away from the beast as it howled in pain from the fiery beams. Its feral fury then kicked back in as it ruthlessly sliced and stabbed through the Sentries. In one occasion, while its legs were occupied with other mechs, it lased out its tentacles from its open maws to constrict the Sentries who happened to be in front of it to death.

Looking back at the strangely pulsing tentacles, Cris smiled, then asked, "Hey, Panther, you remember those mouth tentacles from before, right?" Not waiting for an answer, she continued, "Of course, you do. Now those things are pulsing with its heartbeats. They're not tentacles- they're synapses!"

"And what's your point?" Panther inquired, obviously surprised by her higher level of vocabulary.

"Synapses are basically, uh," Cris searched for an answer. Finding none, she guessed, "I believe they are super-sized arteries from a body that helps increase blood flow to the brain when needed...I think. Only some species of Lylatians have them, and that's where their weakness lies! Get out your grenade launcher!"

Happy that there might be some way to get the adult Plague off their tail, he got out his rifle and clicked the firing mode switch to grenade launcher. Not needing any explanation, he ran back into the doorway as the Plague was still slaughtering the Sentries.

"Hey, you oversized spider!" Panther shouted, catching the Plague's attention, "See ya!" He pulled the trigger, and the rifle lurched as hit the pulsing synapses and exploded.

The Plague didn't even have time to screech as whole gallons of blood flew everywhere, staining the entire corner of the room it was in. The beast, now visible from the explosion of blood, stumbled a few times in an attempt to kill the Sentries still harassing it with beams. With a loud, sickening series of crack, the monster let out a wisp of air and fell to the floor, resulting in a large tremor. As its eyes rolled towards the back of its head, it gurgled a bit as more blood was coughed up. The Plague finally laid still. Panther smiled, then quickly frowned as each and every surviving Sentry turned towards him and Cris, who had just reached him.

"You know," Cris huffed from the run, "I was sorta thinking of letting it kill off the Sentries, then firing the grenade. Y'know, to possibly allow us to not have anything chasing us again?"

"Aw, crap," was Panther's only answer as they started running off again from the Sentries. Cris simply hated the fact that, instead of running away from a single adult Plague, they were now being pursued by about twenty Sentries.

Adrenaline pumped even harder into Cris's head as explosions occurred around them every so often and as the multiple clanking sounds of the Sentries' footsteps got louder and louder. However, the length of time she had already ran was starting to get to her, and her pace started to slow.

Cris's lungs began to burn, and slimy mucus started to build up in her throat. Her legs started to ache, and she knew she couldn't keep up her pace. The kitsune trotted down to a mere jog to try to catch her breath.

All of a sudden, and explosion went off directly behind her, and she felt a tug on her left shoulder- just a mere tug- that caused her to stumble forward. She fell to the ground and looked back to see that a piece of metal from a nearby bulkhead had been blown off by a DE beam and had stuck into her left shoulder. That wasn't the only bad thing behind her either, as three Sentries came over her, with a blaze of orange shimmering in the tip of their cannons' barrels.

A flurry of gunshots went off, and one Sentry fell. An explosion went off in front of her, blowing away the other two around her. Several more of the mechs went down in a similar manner, and they started toward the new threat; a few seconds later, they retreating back. Moments later, an assault-class mech began chasing after them.

Cris grinned, and tried to pick herself up, but couldn't. She already knew that the bulkhead had cut into her main tendon, so she couldn't use her left arm until it was treated. She ripped the piece of metal out of her shoulder, grunting from the stinging sensation that followed.

As a nearby soldier helped her to her feet, she asked, "Thanks I don't think I'd be alive without-" Cris paused. A slight shimmer ran down the length of the soldier.

Panther ran back and spoke, "Hey Cris, did you call for reinforcements of som-" The other soldier and the lone mech flickered. "-Oh for-"

He was cut short as the soldier beat him down, and materialized into a Hunter, as did the others.

Cris looked around and thought, _Alrighty, then. Three Hunters with drills and directed plasma beam cannons against a crippled, weaponless fox and a flirt with a rifle and grenade launcher. Crap._

The Hunter that beat Panther down made some quick motions and grunts, and they all disappeared. Cris got the wind knocked out of her and fell to the ground again, unable to get back up. Panther on the other hand, was sliced by the tip of a drill and knocked to the ground, though he was still alive.

All three of the bio-genetically altered soldiers reappeared and one, to both Cris's and Panther's amazement, spoke in a deep, garbled-sounding voice, "You two are now prisoners of war. Both of you do what I say, or you will both die. Understood?" With two nods from them, he continued, "Now we are going to disguise ourselves back into Lylatian soldiers. Now you follow us to the hangar, and you better not say anything about it to your friends. Got it? Good." All of them shimmered, then turned into Lylatian soldiers and one Spade, "I said _Lylatians_ you…No. Never mind. Works even better."

The Hunter spoke again with an ordinary-sounding voice, "You act as if there's nothing wrong, alright? Now let's get moving, shall we?"

Cris and Panther looked at each other as they were dragged to their feet and smacked with rifle stocks to get moving.

"You know," Cris scowled, "you're probably going to fail miserably."

"Shut your trap, lesser being," a 'soldier' growled. "By a few minutes' time, every Lylatian, Spade, and mech in this station will be nothing more than primordial ooze." He emphasized this by whacking her with the disguised DPB cannon he planned to do so with.

They came up to a wall, and one Hunter asked, "Can we break this down any way we want?"

"Nobody's on the other side," another went, "Do as you please."

With that a directed plasma beam erupted from the tip of an invisible weapon with a sound like that of a thousand hard, electric guitar strums. The whole wall was reduced to nothing more than a puddle of molten steel.

The Hunters moved forward through the puddle, and Cris and Panther were ushered through, with grunts as the molten steel burned the soles of their boots, making their feet scream in pain. They went on toward the hangar, and soon, Cris saw the familiar puddle of drool made by a shock trooper she had encountered earlier…plus the shock trooper as well.

"Is this the one?" the Hunter asked the one-eyed trooper.

"The shock trooper hissed, "But of course." He then, stuck her across the face, then put on its armor, then asked, "Do you mind?" A Hunter nodded, and a moment later, the shock trooper now had the visage of a Lylatian.

The six went through a familiar room full of hard drives. The Hunter in front of them lifted up a "hand" and everyone stopped. In the room was a young, female Lylatian- a cheetah- that appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She wore a pink tank top with a short, but sensible-sized skirt.

Panther's eyes opened, and he gasped, "My God! A-Alicia?"

"Panther?" the cheetah asked back. Out of some strange reason, the Hunter next to Cris grunted, then a sickening crack went off and he fell to the ground. The one near Panther wheeled in surprise, and his head exploded into fragments, sending blood and brains to the floor. The remaining Hunter and shock trooper got the heck out of the room before anything else could happen.

Cris gazed back at this Alicia, then back to Panther. He, oblivious to everything that happened just a few seconds before, started towards the woman.

"Y-you're…alive?" Panther stammered.

"Yes," Alicia smiled. "You didn't think I'd go down that easily, do you?"

Panther grinned, and got out his signature rose, "I-I believe this is yours."

"Hm? Oh…uh…yes."

Cris gazed at both of them, then realized, "Oh, dang. Panther! Get away from her!"

Misinterpreting the reason for her sudden outburst, he shouted, "No! She was- is- my love. There is no need to-" He then realized what was going on, and looked back to a devilishly grinning Alicia, "Aw, for the love of f-."

The cheetah assumed the form of the twisted, gnarled body that was an Epitome of Shadow. It swatted Panther away with a flick of its arm, and gave off its trademark howl-shriek as the wildcat struck the bulkhead and went unconscious.

It then giggled, "How disappointing. It appears that two of my brothers were killed. I _so_ wanted to have some group fights today, but oh, well. Hm, it seems I have about nineteen minutes to kill before this whole station lights up like Fourth of July fireworks."

"Uh, Fourth of July?" Cris asked.

"It's a human holiday commemorating…Ah, you wouldn't know," the Epitome shook its head, then continued, "Ooh, that's a perfect game to play! But I can see you don't like games, do you? Well, there's always something else to do."

"Like what?" Cris dared to query.

"What else?" it smiled grotesquely then whacked her shadow, causing her to fly across the room. She immediately reached for a flash grenade…then realized she didn't have any at all.

"No flash thingies?" the Epitome chuckled. "Yay! That means you can't kill me!"

Cris ducked down to avoid getting her shadow beheaded by that huge arm it had, then continued to dodge and duck blows in order to stay alive. She then leapt into the air and performed an aerial side kick against the Epitome, knocking it to the ground.

After landing with the aid of her right arm, she kicked it in the face several times, in the meantime searching the room for anything that could give off an intense flash of light. Suddenly, she was yanked off her feet and was held in the air by the giant hand of the Epitome.

"If you're searching the room," it growled, "mind your shadow. You might not have killed me from that, but you really made me mad. So, toodles!"

Cris started to scream as the giant hand started to slowly crush her. She tried to breath, but that only allowed the hand to squeeze even tighter on her.

Just then, a bright flash went off behind the Epitome of Shadow, and it yelped in pain, dropping Cris to the floor. Another flash went off, and the Epitome was vaporized into black smoke that disappeared in a few moments.

"You alright?"

Cris turned to see Panther, battered but otherwise fine, and answered, "Yeah. Thanks."

"I'm…sorry about my…recent attitude towards you," Panther looked down at the floor. Cris realized he was trying to hide his tears. "I…I know I'm a big-time flirt and all…and…"

"It's nothing," Cris tried to comfort him. "Seriously. But, uh, who exactly is this…Alicia?"

Panther looked up and replied, "Now's not the time. Maybe after we get back onto the _Dreadnought_."

"Yeah. Let's get going, 'k?"

Panther silently followed Cris as they went through the last door back into the hangar. To both their surprise, only a few dozen of the troops from before were still alive, and they were crowding around the shuttles they had left at the entrance. Cris was relieved though, that all the Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf members were still alive. Most importantly, Adder was also alive.

A gray lupine spotted went over to them and smiled, "Panther, you're alright, bud!"

"Hey, Wolf," Panther tried to grin. "How you doin'?"

"Fine, fine," he smiled back. "Cris, you okay? That shoulder looks bad."

"It'll be fine for now," Cris sighed. "Just get us into the shuttles, thank you."

"Well, you see," Wolf bit his lip, "uh, we can't get the doors to open."

"So? Force 'em open, then," Panther cocked an eyebrow.

"Look, we've tried blow torches, and even shot those things, and they still won't budge."

Cris thought for a moment then spoke, "That kind of model's supposed to have three engines."

"Your point?" Wolf held his arms wide open, inviting an answer.

Cris asked, "Oh, crap. Wolf! Fork over your other SMG!"

"Huh?" a bewildered lupine cocked his eyebrow. "Okay, uh, here?"

Cris took the SMG with her right hand and shouted, "EVERYONE GET BACK FROM THE SHUTTLES NOW!"

Her warning was in vain, however. The shuttles flickered and crackled, revealing ten Hunters- one from each shuttle- along with at least fifteen shock troopers. Each Hunter was armed with an energy shield on the right or left and a heavy chaingun on the other arm. The shock troopers, now completely armored, had their signature claw gauntlets extended.

The Hunters immediately activated, then raised their shields as the first onslaught of bullets impacted against them. They then fired their chainguns over the shields, allowing them to fire without getting shot back at. As the Lylatians, Spades, and mechs sought cover in the hangar, the shock troopers leapt over the Hunters while they provided suppressing fire. The swift bio-soldiers quickly sliced through any exposed troops, with one shock trooper killing at least seven troops before getting gunned down itself. The soldiers that tried to kill the shock troopers were usually caught in the Hunters' line of fire anyways.

Cris searched for cover as she sprinted about the room. Unfortunately, no single object was lying around that could be used as _effective_ cover. She could use the fuel barrels, but those would definitely be out of the option from their explosive contents. A grated stairwell laid to her right, but it would be insufficient for blocking bullets. Finding that nothing was useful, she followed her combat protocols and fell prone on the ground, feigning that she was shot dead, while she was in fact searching for a target.

A Hunter stepped extremely close to her, and she decided to act now. Cris kicked herself up and planted the barrel of her SMG into the back of the Hunters' head. With a three-second trigger pull, the Hunter fell dead to the ground. The other enemies spotted this, and they turned to fire upon her, but that also shifted their attention away from the rest of the soldiers, allowing them to be pumped full of lead, lasers, bullets, and titanium-crystallite Jackhammer rounds. The remaining shock troopers, without their support, fell easily to the firearms.

Just as Cris was about to relax, an arm went across her chest, and she was pulled back. A claw gauntlet extended before her face, and she knew she was in the custody of a shock trooper. The rest of the soldiers wheeled around and raised their weapons.

"Don't you dare," the shock trooper hissed, "or this one is dead." It emphasized this by bringing the claw gauntlet into contact with her cheek, drawing a little bit of blood.

Cris heard a slight static crackle from behind her, and she shifted her gaze as far as it could reach. In the corner of her eye, she could see a slight crackle of electricity originate from a spire. The shock trooper was wearing some sort of radio-disrupting device- the same one that, if destroyed, would make it possible to get out of this station alive.

Cris's head was propped back forward, and the shock trooper continued, "Now I believe you have about eighteen minutes left to spare. Now stay put, and just die."

The white vixen cocked an eyebrow. This shock trooper was really a novice at this. They were all going to die in a few minutes all over just one person? Cris wanted to shake her head, but couldn't under the firm grip of the shock trooper.

_Well, we're probably going to die anyways,_ Cris thought, _so…here goes nothing._

The kitsune did the most basic thing to do- snap her head back into the shock trooper's. This action dazed it for a moment, giving her time to bring the heel of her boots between the legs of the trooper. Grunting from the pain, Cris was able to escape its grip, allowing the soldier to be torn apart by weapon fire.

Adder ran up to her and asked, "Hey, you alright Christi- dang…Cris?"

Cris, panting a little, spoke, "I have a crippled left arm, my left cheek has blood all over it, and I'm freaking tired…but otherwise okay."

"Alrighty, then," Adder turned to face the troops. "Well the jammer should be down now. Hey, you! Yeah, you! Do you mind contacting the fleet?"

The Spade shot his head up, then put an arm to his temple and spoke, "Fleet, this is Spade four-oh-nine! Fleet, do you copy?"

A crackle of static followed, along with the exasperated voice of Peppy, "This is the fleet, we copy! What the heck is going on over there?! We've lost radio contact with you guys for nearly an hour-and-a-half! Now these Seraphs and Harbingers swarmed us after, and now they just fly away as if they're abandoning this station! I ask again- what in the name of God are you doing there?"

"I'm sorry, general," Fox took over from there, "but we don't have a lot of time. This station is not, I repeat, is NOT the humans' base of operations anymore. They just used it as bait to lure us into a trap. We've tried to locate Iradanus, and he fooled us again. Now there's a bomb ticking, we've got a hard drive chock full of intel, and sorry for the tone old friend, but we need to get the hell out of here now!"

"Dang," Peppy cursed, then went back to the radio and spoke. "Okay, I'm sending some shuttles. How many do you need?"

"Just two, no, three," Fox stammered, "How fast can they get here?"

"Right now, sir!"

Everyone looked to see three shuttles dock into the hangar, and a pilot yelled, "Guys, get in here ASAP!"

Despite the fact that there was no honorary "sir" in that sentence, there was no time for that, and everybody dashed on board a shuttle, with the three teams boarding one alone. Cris plopped into a seat and pulled the safety harness, with some difficulty, over her head and strapped herself in as the rest of her team did the same. Not even waiting for everyone to get strapped in, the pilot punched the engines, causing everyone to lurch towards the stern, with a poor Xamuros again falling to the floor.

"This is getting way too old," the supersoldier picked himself up and got into a seat.

Adder turned to everyone and spoke, "Guys, we may have failed the mission, but not entirely. We've made it out alive, even if barely. Also, we have a source of intel for future human plans and…Aloysius, you _do_ have the hard drive, right?"

Aloysius snapped to attention as best he could in the harness and answered, "Yes, sir. I have it clamped to my back right…" The armored bat patted his back a few times, then started patting more frantically. Adder closed his eyes and scowled.

"Adder, uh, sir," Aloysius spoke with a hint of fear, "I-I can explain. I checked my back when, w-when we were still in the hangar and it was still there!"

Xamuros looked around and asked, "Guys, didn't we have another soldier with us before we left the station?"

Adder, face twisted with rage, shouted, "Pilot! Turn this thing around, now!"

The pilot jumped in surprise, then stammered, "Huh? W-what, sir?"

Adder yelled back, "You heard me! Turn this heap of junk around and get back into that station, triple time! I will NOT settle for absolute failure for this mission!"

The pilot, obviously scared out of his wits, turned the ship around and zoomed back for the station's hangar. This attracted angry radio calls as the shuttle weaved around the other shuttles as it headed for it. Cris had never seen Adder so angry ever since she met him. Then again, they were never this close to failing a mission before either.

The radio crackled to life and spoke, "Shuttle oh-five-seven, what are you doing? Over!"

"Sir," the pilot answered back into the speaker, "we are retrieving the hard drive that we believe may have been stolen as we escaped! Over!"

"What? But…dangit, never mind, just get the heck out of there when you're done, 'cause there's only nine minutes left before the whole thing turns into a giant Confederation Day firework! Do me a favor an-"

The pilot shut the radio off before anything else could be said. Since they were all in a hurry, he didn't even take landing procedures as he entered the hangar. Furthermore, he didn't even touch down yet before he opened the exit door.

"Everybody out!" Adder roared. "Get outside and get searching, now!"

Not wanting to upset him anymore, every Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf member got out as fast as they could- even the pilot. They started searching the hangar for any clue as to where the hard drive was, but found none. Adder lifted his head into the air, removed his helmet, and slit his tongue out.

"This way," he ordered. "Come on."

Everybody followed the snake through a series of hallways, passages, and rooms. Each door was already blown open, and had drill holes on them. A Hunter had definitely come this way.

Cris did her best to reload her SMG with her only useful hand, which took about thirty seconds longer than usual, since she was also scared at what would happen if they couldn't make it out in time. Suddenly, she slammed right into Marcus's back, as did everyone else to the person in front of them.

"What's going on?" Marcus asked. "Hey Adder, something wrong?"

"Oh, yeah," Adder nodded, "and boy is it one big problem."

Everybody scrambled like little children at show-and-tell to see what was wrong. Cris pushed her way through several comrades in order to see it. On the ground at the entryway of a dark room was the lifeless corpse of a Hunter. The body itself was unrecognizable. It had been shredded apart into so many bloody and gory pieces that the only thing that would define it as a Hunter was the nearby drill and DPB cannon, which were in pieces as well. The hard drive was nowhere to be found.

"Holy crap," Falco cursed. "What the hell did that?!" Slippy pushed his way through the crowd and looked at the remains of the mauled body.

"Guys," Slippy turned back to them. "this thing was torn apart with several times more force than necessary. We should watch for any sign of movement whatsoever. Be careful from now on."

The large group entered the room, which was pitch-black. Everybody fumbled around for a light switch, but finding none, they all turned on their weapons' flashlight.

Cris turned on her flashlight…revealing another mauled corpse right in front of her. She jumped in surprise, and turned around, trying not to look back at the spilled guts of the corpse. Instead, she looked right into the bloodshot eyes of a human's face. She staggered backwards and landed on her rear.

The human was inside a large cylinder filled with a strange, green liquid. The human, however, was what disturbed Cris. Protruding out of its chest were several extended tentacles, and its back had spider-like legs erupting from it.

Seeing this, the rest of the team members jumped and looked around the rest of the room. Similar cylinders contained humans as well, each with different characteristics. One had a twisted face that had a long snout with sharp fangs at the end. Another had fins replacing its feet and a dorsal fin on its back. At the end of the row was a human that had a serpentine body with swollen arms.

"Holy- what the crap are these things?!" Cris screamed in fright.

Xamuros stepped up to one of the cylinders and stared at one of the creatures in the face, then answered, "I remember this project. I walked down this hallway with my creator, and he explained the supersoldier project before Project: Spade. This operation, called Project: Koteku after the Japanese woman who started it, consisted of combining human soldiers with animal DNA. They believed results would yield humans with animal adaptations, such as the ability to breathe underwater by using aquatic species' DNA, resistance to cold temperatures by using polar bear or husky DNA, and even flight via wings by bird or insect DNA.

"Unfortunately, the project failed, due to an amino acid fluctuation whenever the DNA was combined. In short, the subjects were mutated into freaks, and the project was discontinued…but I don't remember these specimens being here. They humans must have started the project again. This could be very bad."

"It's probably going to get worse," Leon frowned, pointing to something. Cris shined her flashlight at where he was pointing. There was a similar cylinder…which had been cracked open and had no specimen inside.

"Oh jeez," Marcus groaned. "Well, that explains the Hunter."

"Alright, men," Adder turned back to them, "we don't have much time. Let's find that hard drive and get the he-"

That instant, an ear-piercing shriek broke out that made even Adder cringe a little. The soldiers then took defensive positions around the room as a human, naked except for a pair of boxers, dashed into the room, with a Hunter trailing behind him. As the Hunter tried to plunge its drill into the body of the human, the human swung around and punched him with so much force, the Hunters' chest caved in with a loud crack. After the Hunter dropped to the ground dead, the human then staggered into the middle of the room, and everyone noticed that it had the hard drive in its arms.

As everyone rose into firing positions around the human, Fox shouted, "Human, drop that hard drive! Calm down, and drop it!"

Panting, the human replied, "NO! This has the information I can use to change myself back to normal!"

"Normal?!" Tallon cocked an eyebrow. "You look normal to me aside from punching the daylights out of that Hunter."

The human's eyes then widened, and he fell to his knees, dropping the hard drive to the floor, then whimpered, "Help me. Please."

"What?" Adder asked confused.

"Help me. Help me, please!" the human grabbed his head and screamed, "HELP MEEEEE!"

Suddenly, several insect-like legs sprouted from the human's back and swatted at the soldiers, who backed away just before they were about to be hit. The legs then slammed into the ground in order to support the extra burden the human had to carry.

"What…are you still doing here?" the human rasped, "g-get out of here while you still can, before…be…fore it's too-"

The rest was interrupted by a series of cracks as the human's arms morphed into downwards-curving, sickle-like appendages. A sickening gasp of air came out of a mouth…but not from the human's. Another head started to grow from the back of the human's head- with its tooth-filled jaw first. It had eight, red eyes that resembled a reptile's and glared straight at the group. A series of ridges grew from underneath the human's collarbone, and the human's eyes widened even more; Cris felt a sickening feeling in her gut as she realized those were the imprints left by the lower jaw, which had developed underneath the human's ribcage. The second head tried to close its mouth, but the upper jaw got stuck on top of the human's skull, and the lower jaw in the ribcage. What was left was a grotesque version of some strange human-insect-reptile hybrid.

Cris found that she could contain herself no more. She threw off her helmet just as she vomited onto the floor. If there was any upside to that, it was there wasn't that much due to her light breakfast. She reached to put her helmet back on, but it was stepped on by one of the monstrosity's legs, snapping it into four pieces.

"Commander Willis, look out!"

She looked up just in time to see Xamuros block a sickle-like arm from slashing her to bits. The white vulpine regained her senses just in time to back away and fire an onslaught of bullets into the creature. The human jerked as the bullets impacted against him, causing gasps of air to come out from his mouth. Cris felt sick again as she realized the human was _still_ alive.

"Oh, gods," Cris gasped. The rest of the soldiers bombarded the thing as well, causing the human to jerk wildly with each shot. Adder, with a three-second burst from his minigun, blew open the belly of the human, causing his guts to spill out onto the floor. By this time, Cris was glad she had already upchucked.

The creature whined softly and thrashed a little. Then, all eight of the second head's eyes narrowed. A few legs of the monster ripped what was left of the human body to shreds, causing a new creature to come out. The ten legs of the thing were now connected to a long, lizard-like body, complete with scales and ridges. The head crushed what was left of the human's skull into dust, and the head now existed as a wide, toothy grin. The lips of the head were simply too small to contain the rows of teeth, which came out from them in large amounts. This new creature gave off a loud roar that shattered the rest of the glass cylinders around the group. Each creature they had seen before got to their feet and gazed at the strange, new prey that had been laid in front of them. Confusion from the sudden reawakening caused the four creatures to start fighting with each other. One moment, there was a twisted, fish-like creature slashing at a snake with arms, the other, the first experiment was clashing with a creature not unlike a werewolf.

"Crap!" cursed Adder. "Everybody, forget the hard drive and run!"

The group dodged a maelstrom of slashes as they dashed for the exit with the surviving reptilian-insectoid beast in pursuit. Cris found herself struggling to run with the SMG's burden, so she emptied the rest of the rounds in her current clip and cast the firearm away. She ran as fast as she could now, with adrenaline at its peak.

"Warning," the familiar female voice of the intercom spoke. "Warning. Unidentified explosive in main reactor about to explode in T-minus sixty seconds. Evacuate immediately. Evacuate immediately."

_Awwww, crap!_ Cris thought, then ran even faster from the fear of death.

The teams made it back to the hangar with the Koteku experiment close behind. The pilot got into the ship first and got the engines running by the time Cris had entered the ship last. She got into the seat and struggled with the harness, which Adder pulled down for her as he sat down beside her. As the shuttle lifted off from the ground, it suddenly heaved to the side. A few thrashings confirmed Cris' theory that the monstrosity outside has gotten hold of the ship.

"Warning, T-minus thirty seconds until explosive detonates," the intercom spoke again.

"Aw, for the love of-" Xamuros cursed under his breath and got out of his seat. He swung the door open and fired with both of his weapons while screaming, "DIE! DIE! DIE!" Blood gushed into the shuttle, with some covering Xamuros himself. The shuttle heaved once more as it regained flight once more and the door shut…with the Spade, of course, on the ground scrambling for a seat.

"Pilot," Fox yelled, "push those engines as far as you can!"

Not needing any coaxing, the pilot obeyed the order and the shuttle accelerated to breakneck speed in a matter of seconds and out of the hangar.

"Oh, jeez," Slippy groaned. "Seven seconds! Brace yourselves!"

Cris put her head down as far as the harness could allow, and put her only usable hand on it. The rest did the same, as did Xamuros, who finally buckled himself in.

Behind them, a shiny glow emitted from the center of the research station, which increased in brightness until the whole station was reduced to myriad chunks of various sizes. The chunks of metal were then sucked into the explosion's origin. Blackness and silence came, followed by an explosion even more intense than before. Not only did the explosion cause the pilot to loose control of the ship, but the debris field originating from the blast was immense. Pieces of the station were blown outwards from the center like grenade shrapnel, some piercing right through one end of the ship and out the other, barely missing the occupants. Cris found herself holding her breath as the ship lost pressure and a vacuum began to form within the ship. She saw the pilot get ripped apart by chunks of metal, and then, everything went black.

_What? Oh, crap. We all died, didn't we? Dangit, and after all I've been through too. Wow. Life really does flash before your eyes after you die. There's Xamuros right here. There's Adder coming to save me…woohoo…There's the _Dreadnought_ and the team, and there's my left leg, and…Wait a minute. My leg?_

Sound rushed back into her ears like a breaking wave, and she snapped her head up. Cris looked around the room. Adder and Xamuros were in front of her, lifting up her harness. Everyone else was either on the floor, dazed just like her, or standing up and stretching their cramped limbs.

"W-what?" Cris stammered. "We…w-we're alive?!" she smiled and screamed like a little kid who got their first bike on their birthday, "Haha! We're alive!"

Suddenly, the door was bashed open and General Halcyon entered the shuttle and looked around at everyone.

"I have seen some preeeetty wacko stuff in my time with the Corps," he gazed bewildered, "But this is by FAR the closest thing to a miracle I have ever seen. I mean, getting tossed around by the explosion with shrapnel punching through the hull, somehow _not_ getting pulverized. Then, out of some stroke of luck you fly right into the _Dreadnought_'s hangar right-side up. Even Aloysius would agree with me on that!"

"What are you implying, sir?" Aloysius leered at him.

"Oh, nothing," Halcyon rolled his eyes. "Back to important matters, we have heard that you went back to retrieve the hard drive. If you have recovered it, we may have a winning chance in this war. Do you have it?"

Adder snapped to his attention stance and reported glumly, "No, sir. I'm terribly sorry, but due to the fact that we were running out of time, as well as the danger that pursued us, I can say that we were unable to retrieve it, sir." He then turned to everybody else and spoke, "Ah, everyone? I'm…sorry about what happened earlier. I was uptight, and I was probably…okay, fine, _definitely_ expecting too much out of all of you. I put everyone in danger without any regard for their safety. And that's something I shouldn't have done. I'm sorry, and I'm still fine even if we didn't get the hard drive."

"Don't be so sure," Aloysius huffed. He reached behind his back and pulled out a rectangular prism with wires dangling out of it, and even though no one could see through his visor, knew he was smiling.

"Aloysius!" Adder smiled. "You got the hard drive!"

"Never count your old bud out before the game's finished, Adder," Aloysius then cocked his head sideways, "What? You don't trust me anymore or something?"

"Ah, you're still the same old Aloysius we all know," Cris laughed. "Yo, Ace! Why don't we hook it up to your computer and see what you can get off of it?"

Ace didn't even need to be asked. He had already taken the hard drive out of the bat's hands and put it on his desk.

As everyone crowded around him, he spoke, "Alright, first I need to rewire this thing so that it's compatible with my computer. I'm going to need a USB cable to hook 'em up together, a screwdriver to take it apart, some wire cutters, some extra wires, and a bite to eat, 'cause I'm freaking hungry! Got all that?"

As everyone went off to find the necessary materials to get the hard drive ready, Cris sat down in a nearby chair and took a look at her shoulder. She already knew that the tendon to her arm had been slashed in two, but she never knew how much damage the piece of bulkhead actually did. Her shoulder was a mess of dried blood now, but she could clearly see infection already starting. It was a wonder that she hadn't crumpled up in the vacuum generated when the transport was exposed to space.

Cris stood up and headed toward the teleporter. She already knew that with one arm, she couldn't help Ace or the others, and she needed to give attention to her shoulder anyways. After the familiar feeling of lightheadedness, she reappeared in the medical wing, and got into a self-treatment center.

The room was completely white- even the floor- without any breaks in the pure color, aside from the door she just used to enter the room. In fact, if one didn't know the room well enough, he or she would probably walk into a wall without seeing it. This was because trillions of microscopic antibacterial lights were surrounding her from nearly all directions. These lights emitted UV rays in amounts small enough to be harmless to the patient, but intense enough to kill the bacteria in the room and on the patient.

A holographic touch screen appeared before her. With a few taps in the air, she diagnosed the condition she was in, and let the room's medical CPU do the rest. A pair of mechanical arms sprouted from the ceiling and headed to her shoulder. The first one opened up a good-sized hole in her armor, while an appendage came from that same arm, opening up the shoulder wound. The other arm spread an antiseptic salve to kill off any bacteria in the wound to halt the infection, though with a grunt from Cris. After doing so, one arm disappeared back into the ceiling, while the one holding the wound open remained doing so. The arm returned with a piece of flint in one appendage and a metal disk in the other. It placed the flint over the wound, and struck the metal disk on its underside, causing sparks to accurately fray the nerve endings so that there was no pain in the surgical work to be done. Cris did her best to look away, as she felt several tugs as the arms reconnected the cut tendons and muscles and put a small neural assistance chip nearby in order to help in moving the arm while it healed. The arms then closed the wound and stitched her skin back together. After a pause, one arm came out with an antiseptic wipe and cleaned the cakes of blood that were on her left cheek. The whole process was done in about five minutes and thirty seconds.

Cris flexed her numb arm a few times, and curled and uncurled her fingers. Happy with the result, if not a little tired from standing still for so long, she headed back outside and into the teleporter.

Back in the hangar, everyone was at work as Ace opened up the hard drive and started clipping, replacing, and relocated wires in the inside, tearing a few unnecessary components out.

As Cris neared him, he snapped, "Well, it's about time you're back. Could you lend me a hand here? A genius can't work with only two."

"Somebody's a little grumpy," Cris sighed. "Alright, whadda ya need?"

"At the moment, I need a battery, preferably I-type, in order to activate the system while I deactivate the security protocols and search for any explosives, booby traps, or spying devices of the sort. Now hop to it, if you will."

Cris went over to another of Ace's desks and threw a drawer open. She just couldn't believe how Ace could find anything he needed in his crammed, unorganized storage compartments. She had to go through a mess of wires, bolts, nuts, and screws until finding the battery. After running back to a hard-working Ace, he snatched the battery out of her hands without even a glance and wired it up and cut some more wires and fried some processors.

"Aw, yeah!" Ace whooped, "I think I'm done!"

Everyone ran up and crowded around him once more as he turned on his computer and linked the two hard drives together. He logged on to the opposite hard drive instead, and started accessing files.

"Alright, triple-A priority file!" Ace rubbed his hands together. "Let's do this!"

He clicked the file and let it load…and letters and numbers with completely no understanding of any sort popped up and filled seventeen whole pages.

"What? NO!" Ace put his hands over his face.

"Huh?" Krystal snapped up. "What's wrong? Is this hard drive damaged or something?"

"No," Ace lifted his head up. "All of the information on this thing…is encrypted!"

"What?!" everyone screamed at once.

Xamuros swore under his breath and groaned, "Oh, that's right! Iradanus wouldn't have made it that easy for us to access the information on this thing! It'll take months to decrypt it!"

"Oh, yes it will!"

Everyone looked around the room to find the source of Iradanus's familiar voice.

"Hey, idiots, click the other tab!"

Ace did so, and a separate screen popped up with Iradanus's face on the other end.

"Did you really think I'd allow you to get ahold of that juicy intel so simply?" he smiled. "You're lower than I thought! Hah, good luck decrypting a system you don't even know of!"

"You son of a- how do we decrypt it?" Fox smashed his fist on the desk.

"You honestly believe I'm going to tell you?" Iradanus chuckled. "Well, of course not! I will tell you this, though. The encryption system follows a device that is over a century old. Ever heard of the Enigma Machine? Well obviously no, since you don't know a thing about human history.

"Anyways, it was made during the 1940 to 1945 conflict of World War II, a war between the Allies, the U.S.A, Great Britain, and the Soviets, along with France and Poland, against the Axis, which were the Germans, the Japanese, and the Italians. During this war, it became evident that encryption was needed for many operations. The Germans, being the first to realize this, created the Enigma Machine.

"Now this machine is still considered an astounding device, even by today's human standards and possibly yours. Now imagine a keyboard. You press 'a' and get the letter 'q1'. You press 'a' again and get 'r7'. Now in the original Enigma Machine, you could press 'a' for the number equal to twenty-six to the sixth power before you get 'q1' once more. That is because inside the machine are six metal disks with the letters of the alphabet printed on them. Wires run through those disks, and are segmented into eight parts- one to enter the first disk, six for the six disks, and one to loop back to the keyboard- that were individual operated by an electric motor. With each tap of a letter, the first disk spins, highlighting the letter encrypted, and spins with each press of a key. After every forty-two spins, the next disk spins, and after eighty-four taps, the next does, and so on and so forth until you reach the last disk. After that, the whole system resets and you get 'a' as 'q1' once more.

"What humans have done, however, is that they've turned it into a system you could use on any computer and added four-hundred-ninety-four more disks to the program. So now, you must press 'a' for about… one-hundred-sixty-seven (now expanded to accommodate every human language, made up mostly of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean characters) to the five-hundredth power. What you get are billions upon billions of ways to end up with 'a'.

"Back to the point, I have to say this- good luck with decryption, because you're all going to need it."

With that, the video loop disappeared, and everyone in the entire room knew that any hope for a quick end to the war had been crushed.

* * *

Cris got into bed after a large dinner, due to the fact that she had regurgitated her light breakfast and had had no lunch, due to the operation a few hours ago. During the time after dinner, everyone had said their goodbyes as Katt, Slippy, Amanda, Bill; Generals Halcyon, Peppy, Pepper, and Field Master Xamuros left the ship, and the _Dreadnought _once again drifted without destination in space. Fox, Krystal, Marcus, and Tallon were still in the mess hall, spending time together as a family. Falco was with Ace, and worked on the decryption (she could hear some cursing as Ace discovered that Falco wasn't quite the genius he wanted him to be). Both Adder and Aloysius were by themselves, doing what they wanted to in solitude. Brutus was cleaning up the galley with Wolf. Leon was at the shooting range using silenced weapons due to the late hour.

Cris wanted to know what Panther was doing, however. He had promised to explain what in the world happened back on the station when they got back onboard, and he hasn't spoken, or more surprisingly flirted, since their return. She kicked herself off the mat and onto her feet in one swift, fluid motion, then proceeded to the hallway.

As the white vixen proceeded down the hallway, she identified the doors to the rooms whose occupants she knew. That eliminated her fellow teammates' rooms, and most of Star Fox's. She next used trial and error to find out which door was Panther's by giving a slight tap on the unknown doors. After four tries, she found the right door.

After she tapped twice, a moody tone from the inside spoke, "Come in." She did so, and stepped into the wildcat's room.

The room had the same, neat whiteness as the hallways and rooms in the rest of the _Dreadnought_'s nooks and crannies, with some changes, like a mattress, a tall row of drawers, and two nightstands. A few photos hung in frames on the walls, including Panther and this mysterious "Alicia" with him. The pictures depicted them doing lots of recreational activities, such as a roller coaster ride in an amusement park, a majestic shoreline, and a pristine rainforest. In all pictures, the two were always smiling or laughing, and not in the way most people just smiled to get a good picture. They were both having the time of their lives with each other in each picture, and they were as happy as anyone could get.

Panther was on the mattress, holding a picture and cherishing his memories. He looked up at Cris and handed her the picture. This one was of Panther and Alicia in front of a water fountain. Panther was wearing a sky blue T-shirt and jeans, while Alicia wore a red tank top with a long dress of the same texture and color. Over the cheetah's left earlobe was a rose, an all-too familiar rose that Panther now twisted in his fingers.

"Alicia was my wife," Panther began in a mourning tone. "She and I met each other at a daycare center when we were both too young for school. We weren't friends yet, though, or at least we didn't admit it back then. During grade school, we started to accept the friendship- we did almost everything together. We helped each other in homework, played together, went to the beach together…you name it, we probably did it. When high school came, we started getting closer toward each other, until we became husband and wife after we graduated college. And guess which flower I gave to her for that occasion? The rose…and it became the symbol of our marriage.

"As a person, Alicia was optimistic, enthusiastic, and had a laugh that you could never frown after hearing. She was the sun that brightened up my day- the fire that kept me going through each one. I- no, we loved each other that much. She had a good heart, and was extremely charitable to the poor and helpless. If there ever was a Goddess, Alicia was as close to Her as you can get.

"…I never forgot the day she died- when we were torn apart from each other by the fickle side of fate. It was during the war against Andross. The city we were in was occupied by Andross's troops, though they allowed us to live normal lives if we behaved. However, they still treated everyone in the city like dirt. One day, Alicia was being harassed by a soldier and I struck him back. Even though he wasn't permitted to kill anyone, he still cut me with his combat knife. That's why I have my scar," he indicated this by showing his muzzle, where a crescent-shaped, pinkish-white line was. "We all resented them. No one in the entire city would even spit in their general direction. That all changed, though.

"The Cornerian army then arrived in the city, and was capturing via building-by-building crackdown. Alicia and I were in our house when they barged into it. The soldier that did so was inexperienced- he couldn't tell who the enemy was and who wasn't. Alicia was chopping tomatoes for our lunch pasta when he barged in, and he mistook her as a threat from the knife. He accidentally shot Alicia in the stomach before he realized we weren't the enemy. She died a slow a painful death as stomach acid burned at her vital organs. There was nothing I or anyone else could do. I would've sent for a doctor, but it was a crackdown, and I couldn't do it without getting shot myself. Before her heart finally gave out from the pain, she gave me her rose and told me 'Hostility is the foulness of the universe…don't give into its desires…please…'. She died thirty seconds after.

"After the city was entirely captured by the Cornerian army, I went against Alicia's warning and wanted to fight against the Cornerian army. But then again, I couldn't fight for Andross either because his troops treated everyone so poorly. Andross for revenge or Corneria for justification…I couldn't pick, so I didn't.

"I became a drifter- an outcast torn between both sides of the war. I went from planet to planet in a starship I bought. I didn't receive any flight training, but I learned 'If you don't know how to drive or fly it, ignore everything but the ignition, the gas pedal or thruster, the wheel or yoke, and the brakes and you'll do fine. (Panther chuckled a little after stating the quote)'. I eventually learned the rest of the controls for the ship, and could whiz between asteroids with one hand after a few weeks. Most pilots learn through instruction manuals. Because I learned purely through experience, I was more skilled than most pilots at the time. My skill with the starship earned attention from both armies, and they pursued me in hopes to recruit me. I just fled from them as best I could, but the skills I used to evade them set their resolve to recruit me in stone.

"As I ran and ran from the armies, the war was eventually won by the Cornerian forces, and the need to elude the armies disappeared. I came out of hiding…but I still was sought after by someone, more so, two people. Wolf and Leon. As a merc, I didn't really have to work for just one side, so I joined the squadron, and I became who I am now.

"Through the years that have passed, I've yearned for another Alicia to enter my life, which is why I now am known as a flirt by everyone. Despite my efforts, I found none, but I kept Alicia's rose as the only spiritual link from me to her. I pray to it every night before I sleep, I ask Alicia through it to lend me her strength before a battle, and I would defend the rose with my own life…it means so much to me.

"So now you know of my behaviors, and just who I am, Cris. I'm sorry for have troubling you. Do what you wish." Panther stood up and entered the restroom. After the doors shut, Cris could distinctly hear sobs from the inside.

The white kitsune exited Panther's room silently and headed for her own. She headed through the doorway, undressed herself and got into her pajamas, and laid down on her floor mat. Strangely enough, though, the only thing she could think of at the time was not of Panther, but Adder instead. As she got closer and closer to sleep, she thought more and more about him.

_Bah! _Cris thought, dispelling the mental images. _He's a serpent! Wouldn't it be strange if I fell in love with him- especially during this war? And what the heck would the baby come out as? …Aw, great. That's gonna be hard to sleep on after thinking of that._

Cris tried to think of something else as she punched the wall to turn off the light, and watched the dots dance before her eyes. Finally, she fell into the deep trance of sleep, with thoughts about the heavy metal CD she so wished to obtain.

* * *

After everyone in the _Dreadnought_ was surely asleep- even Ace, who had been working on decryption for hours so far- the shadow of the torn shuttle shifted slightly. Suddenly, an Epitome of Shadow shot out from the dark blanket on the floor, with a one-eyed shock trooper and Hunter with it. The three had barely escaped the station by, to all of their unwillingness, working together. But that was all beside the point, now. They had a mission on the ship. As the Hunter opened up his drill and DPB cannon to reveal human-like arms, the shock trooper headed for the opposite end of the vast hangar to search for a suitable escape vehicle, and the Epitome of Shadow ushered the Hunter with it to the sleeping quarters.

As they neared their target's room, the Hunter extracted a gag, a prisoner transportation device, and an anesthetic-filled IV needle, while the Epitome of Shadow started to shift into a different visage. After finding the room, Epitome of Shadow and Hunter entered in complete silence. The sounds of soft thuds, muffled yelps, and the collapse of the person came from the room. A few seconds there after, only the Hunter came out with a large box in his arms. The bio-genetically altered human returned to the hangar, and got into a transport ship without a word. Inside, the shock trooper powered up the engines with minimal noise, and exited the ship. Nobody on board the _Dreadnought_ noticed a thing.

* * *

* * *

If you read my author's notes at the end of the last part, you can now tell that I wasn't kidding about the goriness and the length of this one.

So yeah. Still more new enemies. Sadly, you don't see much of the Koteku specimens until the final chapter of Contact (chapter 16) and the sequel, Rise of the Echelon.

Last thing to address- Panther's backstory. Surprisingly, the whole idea of it came to me rather easily. Didn't take that long to put it together, to tell you the truth. I don't know about you guys, but I think it turned out rather well.

Hope my four (five?) current readers here are enjoying this!


	21. Chapter 12, Part 1: Into the Depths

Chapter 12: Into the Depths

February 18, 2362

0937 hours

The _Dreadnought_

Tallon woke up quite refreshed in the morning. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, then looked around his room. The brownish kitsune was lying on a bed with a blue and white plaid pattern for the pillow sheet and blanket. The walls of his room were decorated with posters of his favorite rock bands, as he was a big fan of anything along the lines of rock or heavy metal. Across the room was his clothes drawer, which he rarely used, due to the fact that most of his clothes lay strewn across the room across the floor. A lone lamp alarm clock laid on a maple nightstand to his right, and to his left was a shorter nightstand with a rectangular personal music player in its charger.

The vulpine yawned and thought, _Man, that was a good night's sleep. Hm, wait a minute! I usually don't get a good night's sleep! Then that means…_ His gaze fell onto the lamp alarm clock…which read 9:38 A.M.! _Aw, shoot! I overslept by over an hour and a half! _

Tallon shot out of bed and rushed into the restroom, not even turning on the lights. He took a short steam shower, picked up the dental foam canister, squeezed in and spat out the foul contents; and hurried back towards the door, but looked into his reflection in the mirror.

Tallon flicked the light switch to get a better look at himself. He was sort of egotistic, and he knew it, but he just couldn't help but look at himself. His fur was of a soft, brown color with eyes of the same hue. He was wearing a white undershirt and gray boxers, which contrasted against his fur. His build was what captivated him the most- he liked to think that he was really buff, and in truth, he really was. His muscles rippled as he posed in the mirror, flexing his biceps and triceps. Then, he realized this was only making him even later, so he shut off the light, and headed back into his bedroom.

His disorganization was his undoing, as Tallon slipped on a pair of pants he left on the floor and fell on his back. He swore under his breath, then kicked himself into a negraim (in other words, he spun around on his head, sort of like a break dancer) and swung his legs so that he was back on his feet. He looked back at his cargo pants, shrugged, and picked them up. They were a dusty brown color and matched his fur. He stuffed both of his legs into the pants as he jumped to his pile of shirts. He then snatched a red T-shirt off of the ground and donned it. After finding and getting on a pair of socks, a belt, and some boots, he rushed out of the door…and bumped right into his dad.

"Good morning, son," Fox crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Late again, are we?"

"Uh," Tallon groaned. "Well, ya see, dad, I was kinda tired from the night before, and I really needed the sleep…"

"Don't worry yourself, Tallon," Fox patted him on the back. "It's not that big of a deal, anyways. Remember, though, you have to-"

"-commit myself to waking up on time," Tallon finished with a sigh, "I know, I know."

"Tallon," Fox spoke as they started down the hallway together, "you're a good boy. You're strong, heck much more so than I am, pretty smart, and kind. You only need to learn some common sense. Namely, commitment and focus."

"Yes, dad."

"A little monosyllabic today? Okay, I'm gonna see what you're mother's up too, 'k?"

"Alright."

"Good, now go get some breakfast."

As his father left him alone in the hallway, Tallon let out a long sigh. He took pride in the fact that he was the son of the famous Fox McCloud…but, at the same time, he felt as if he could never live up to his dad's hopes. What Tallon wanted more than mostly anything was to please him- to make him happy and proud of him. He felt happy just seeing his dad happy. And not just him, either. Pleasing his mom and older brother was what he wanted, too. Tallon felt that he lived for the service of his family, and he took solace from the fact that he was making things better for them.

Pondering these facts, Tallon was about to head for the teleporter and get to the galley for a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast with butter, and pancakes…but ROB thought otherwise. A static crackle went off before:

"Attention! Attention," went the monotonic robotic voice, "we have a transmission from Supreme General Pepper, General Halcyon, General Peppy, and Field Master Xamuros! All hands to the bridge!"

Tallon could distinctly hear Ace in the background saying, "ROB, we don't have a bridge! It's called a command deck!"

"My apologies," ROB corrected himself. "All hands to the command deck!"

_Aw, man! I really wanted a decent breakfast after all of this._ Tallon sighed again, and then went into the teleporter. After the now-familiar feeling of lightheadedness, reappeared in the…galley?!

"What the-" Tallon thought aloud. "Aw, dangit! Mind over stomach, mind over stomach." He repeated these words to focus on his task entered the teleporter again, this time, appearing in the command deck.

Tallon leapt over the rails of the stairwell, and landed in his seat. However, he landed on something rather hard, and shot up and out of his seat.

"Yeeeow!" Tallon yelped, then looked back to see a TV remote where he had just plopped himself onto.

"Whoops," a nearby Ace chuckled. "Eh, sorry 'bout that, Tallon."

The muscular fox muttered to himself as he sat down; the rest of the teams of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf got into their seats. After everyone was in their seat, ROB clacked away at a few buttons and keys. The lights dimmed and the windshield covered itself with a black veil as the holoprojector activated. Instead of just General Pepper; Xamuros, Peppy, and Halcyon appeared at his sides as well.

The teams saluted the generals and field master as Pepper saluted back and spoke, "At ease, soldiers. I presume you've had a nice period of rest?"

"Yes, general," Fox nodded. "Is there something you need?"

"That's affirmative," General Hare answered, and started. "If you'll allow me to continue, supreme general…" the bloodhound nodded, and Peppy continued, "…thank you, sir. We have a situation on Aquas…Roberts, do you mind?" An apology could be heard, and a holographic model of Aquas appeared in the center of the four leaders, "Thank you. As we all know, Aquas is a water-covered planet, yes? Well, if we zoom in for a bit…that's your cue, Roberts!" The picture zoomed in to show a photo of the planet's worldwide ocean, "Thank you again, and pay attention, please. Now, as you can tell, the siphoning has not affected the surface of the planet. However, we are afraid that the sea floor is a different story." The picture changed to show the sea floor, where numerous coral and species of fish were, "This was seven months ago. This is now." The picture changed to show a drastic change in the sea bed. The coral was all dead, and as a result, were bleached white. The water itself was clearer, which may sound good, but really meant that the water had been deprived of much of its life-bearing oxygen. There were no signs of any aquatic life whatsoever.

"My God," Wolf murmured, then asked. "Do we have any idea on how much energy has been siphoned from this planet so far?"

"We do," Halcyon replied, "but you are not going to like the answer. Ninety-six percent."

Adder kept a straight face through this and commented, "Well, it appears as if the siphoning of the planet hasn't affected the surface, which is good. Hm…but this is at an extreme stage of the siphoning, so why hasn't it?"

"Well," Halcyon started to explain, "that is probably because of the fact that most of the minerals and ore of the planet are locked away in the crust, namely the sea floor. The draining of the planetary energy hasn't affected the surface yet because there's not much energy out there."

"Ahem," Peppy coughed to attract everyone's attention, then spoke. "Back to the point, we need a way to find out how to locate the siphoning facility. Some strange electromagnetic disturbance is preventing us from scanning for its location. Any ideas?"

Everybody's gazes fell to Ace, who thought for a bit, then asked, "Hey, Xamuros? Is the speed of the siphoning of a planet affected at all by terrain?"

"No," the Spade replied, "the energy drain is equal among any terrain, with no regard to density of the rock or its composition and…Wait, that means-"

"-the siphoned area radiates from the facility in a perfect circle," Ace finished. "So all we need to do is find the epicenter of the siphoned area-"

"-and we have the location of the facility!" General Pepper finished. "Ah, it's so simple! Why didn't anyone think of it before?"

"Okay," Halcyon nodded, "that means that the siphoning facility is…" the picture changed to show an aerial view of Aquas' ocean. An x-and-y-axis navigator danced across the hologram for a few seconds before stopping near the right portion of the screen, "…there. Scanners are also picking up a heavy concentration of enemy troops in the region, too. There is no doubt about it- it is there!"

"Well, it looks like the period of rest is going to end here," Xamuros spoke. "Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf; we'll have a battleship dispatched to that area now. Your job is to infiltrate the siphoning facility and destroy it at any cost. I don't think any of us know what you're up against, so good luck."

"Hmph," Falco huffed. "What else is new, eh? So anything else before we leave?"

Pepper turned and tapped a few times at some off-screen computer and answered, "Yes. I've got a message from Slippy. He's leaving Amanda behind for now, and he'll meet you on the ship."

"Ah, I knew he'd come back," Falco shook his head.

"Riiiight," Marcus rolled his eyes. "Well, let's just hope his piloting skills have improved…even if just by a little bit."

"Well, there is no point in any more talk," Halcyon spoke. "Xamuros and some of his Spades will also join you. Best of luck to all of you! Pepper, Hare, Xamuros, and Halcyon out."

The holograms faded, and the lights brightened while the windshield door opened. Everybody got out of their seats and headed for the hangar.

Tallon just realized something," Wait a minute, we're going on a battleship? That means we'll be on water!"

"Uh…yeah," Leon sighed. "What was your first guess?"

"Something wrong?" Brutus asked.

"Um, well…," Tallon scratched the back of his head.

"What, are you afraid of a little water, bro?" Marcus grinned and tilted his head to one side.

"No!" Tallon objected. "I'm just a little seasick, is all!"

"Ah, don't worry your head off," Marcus patted Tallon's head in a mocking way, "You'll be fine."

* * *

Not too many Lylatians know this, but Aquas is actually a gas giant. In fact, that is why one has to fly through the atmosphere for several minutes before reaching the ocean's surface. This atmosphere is mainly composed of trace amounts of methane, some nitrogen and helium; and mostly hydrogen and oxygen. It is also why there is water covering the entire planet. The massive gravity originating from the solid, iron core is so powerful that it actually condenses the gases to an atomic level about a thousand miles away from it. This caused hydrogen and oxygen atoms to fuse together to form water, and due to the already plentiful amount of both, a lot of it as well. In Aquas' early stages of birth, the water was heated into steam, due to the high core temperatures. This caused precipitation to fall for several thousand years before covering the planet again, but this time, with lightning, due to intense friction from the bombardment of celestial objects, which formed the crust and mantle of the planet after they were packed into the planet from its intense gravity. Why is lightning so important, you may ask? Because it caused the birth of proteins that later formed amino acids, which later formed into strands of DNA, and later into microscopic life, which later adapted to their aquatic environment. Also, when people say that you're standing on the sea floor of Aquas, you're actually standing on asteroids and meteorites that have been packed against the core's gravity to the point of becoming the planet's mantle and crust.

Focusing on the present planet of Aquas, the morning was extremely silent, due to the fact that most aquatic life had been wiped out from the humans' constant siphoning of the planet's energy. This silence, however, was broken by a blast of condensed air from a foghorn as a blue Lylatian Navy battleship wrecked the pristine dawn. The battleship was composed of three sections, each laying parallel to each other. The center contained the superstructure (which is basically the command tower) and most of the heavy beam cannons and anti-aircraft weapons. The flanking sections, which were connected to the center by thick cylinders of durtanium armor that were hollowed out for ease of passage, contained the engines, some cannons and anti-aircraft components, long-ranged missile launchers, and hangars to launch landing craft or smaller seafaring vessels. All had crew quarters to accommodate the hundreds that were needed to operate the ship. Riding alongside the battleship were two entire armor divisions of hover tanks and SDFK hovercars that merely hovered over the water. Also with them were seven bombers and six starfighters for air support, as well as several squadrons of fighter-mechs. Together, these extra units formed a formidable escort.

Tallon, dressed in Ace's armor once more, couldn't bring himself to enjoy anything- not the fresh air, not the tons of armor and aircraft he would smile at…the thing that wrecked him was the constant upheavals and drops from the rough waters. He had been sick all day, and it was only a matter of time before-

"Oh, jeez," Tallon groaned as queasiness flowed through him.

"Yo, bro," a nearby Marcus walked up to him worriedly, "you okay?"

"Do I _look_ okay to you?" Tallon groaned again.

"Alright, just look at the sea, Tallon," Marcus instructed. "Just keep looking at it."

"That makes it worse, dangit! Oh, for-"

Tallon ripped off his helmet and vomited over the rails. With a few breaths, he got it all out.

"Crap!" an angry Wolf sounded below. "Dammit, Tallon, there's a whole 'nother deck below you! You almost got me there!"

"Ugh," Tallon grunted. "Sorry…Oh, dear gods…"

"Ooh," Marcus put a hand to his face. "Maybe you should go inside."

"Yeah," the brown-furred kitsune nodded in agreement, "I don't even know how I upchucked! I didn't even have any breakfast!"

"Then just go to the galley and get some. I heard Brutus is servin' some cream of chicken down there! It's your favorite!"

"Fine, fine," Tallon walked away from his older brother and into the cramped, bulkhead-filled hallways of the inside.

_Man, I'm as irritable as Aloysius, today,_ he thought as he headed toward his destination. He made it to the mess hall, which basically had the same design as a school cafeteria. Counters full of food of all sort lined the room, and he couldn't help but salivate a little. After waiting in line for a few minutes, he made it to Brutus.

"Hey, Tallon," the boa constrictor greeted. "How you doin', man?"

"Okay, I guess," Tallon shrugged.

"Wait," Brutus held up a hand, "don't tell me. You want cream of chicken. Am I right?"

"Yep."

"Okay, then here you are," Brutus handed him a bowl brimming with his favorite soup. "Hey, have you heard?"

"Heard what?" Tallon inquired, accepting the bowl.

"About humans' food," Brutus answered. "They don't use inorganic meat like us- they actually use _real _meat!" Just then, everyone in the entire galley looked right at him, most of them grunting in disgust.

"I feel like barfing all over again," Tallon groaned.

"I know!" Brutus held his arms out. "It's gross, isn't it? Jeez, I wonder how they would feel if the meat they ate was their own kind?"

"I'll…just be going, thank you," Tallon took a spoon and got to a table next to his mother, who just happened to be there.

"Well, that last comment ruined my morning," Krystal grimaced, then smiled at Tallon. "How're you doing?"

"Ah, okay," Tallon shrugged, as he took off his helmet, "considering the fact that I already puked today."

"Are you sure you'll be okay on this mission? I know you can't digest the seasick pills, but we can send you back to the _Dreadnought_ if you want."

"No," Tallon shook his head after taking his first spoonful of soup, "I fight with my family and teammates."

Krystal nodded in understanding and commented, "One of the many things I like about you is your unrelenting loyalty, Tallon. It's a good trait to have."

"But don't we all have it?"

"Yes, but you are willingly loyal. In fact, even Adder isn't entirely loyal to the Confederation army. He just wants to get the war over with and end the suffering."

"Is that not what everyone wants?"

"True, but you can also want something, then strive for it just to achieve it, not for duty or something."

Tallon scratched his head, "It's…kinda confusing."

"You'll come to understand it eventually, and-"

The mother-and-son conversation was interrupted as a soldier bashed through the galley's double doors and yelled, "Everyone! Get outside! There's something you might want to see! And bring your weapons before you go topside!"

Tallon brought the bowl to his lips and gulped down the rest of the soup. After he finished, he grunted as the piping-hot fluid scalded his mouth and throat, and then donned his helmet. He then swung over the table's bench and headed for the weapon lockers, which were a few seconds away from the galley. Already dozens of soldiers were getting their weapons ready, and Tallon dashed to his locker and dialed in the combination. _34…16…49…got it!_ he thought as he opened the door and took out his weapons- a plasma vapor thrower as his main weapon and a MS-A1 single-hand, semi-automatic, five-gauge shotgun as his sidearm. He swung the gigantic plasma charge pack onto his back and locked the nozzle onto its handle, then loaded a laser magazine into the shotgun. An ascending whine came from both weapons as their charges started to heat up for use.

The brownish vulpine then dashed down the hallway, though his dash eventually slowed down to a slow jog, due to the burden of his weapons. He made it outside though, and just happened to look directly at the sea again. Ignoring the queasy feeling that stemmed from it, he looked around for any sign of what the soldier had so urgently announced as the rest of the soldiers came on deck, doing the same as thing as him.

Suddenly, a voice cried out, "Dang! Everyone, we've got something off of the bow bearing towards us!"

Tallon snapped his head to the front of the ship, and saw what the trooper had reported. A wall of dense mist could be seen about sixty decameters in the distance, and was quickly making its way toward them.

Brutus, now outside with his signature chaingun, looked around and asked, "What? What's everyone staring at?" He then looked bow-wards and groaned. "Oh, jeez."

The intercom crackled to life, "The bridge is issuing a fog warning. All soldiers at the deck, please be careful for any collisions and- furth-...dis-...poor-" The intercom sputtered as the mist engulfed the ship and its supporting units. The instruments on the border of Tallon's helmet's visor began to crackle and warp out of proportion before they were immediately shut down.

"Electronic fog," Tallon whispered. "This could get very bad."

Suddenly, a trooper next to him was hoisted into the air, and everyone swerved to see that an Epitome of Voltage was gripping the poor soldier by the face, then dropped him dead into the ocean. Several more of the Epitomes appeared to its sides.

"And it's probably gonna get worse," Brutus cringed, and then pointed. Off in the distance, about a mile in front of the ship, several beams of energy erupted outwards. Moments later, the energy beams impacted on the decks of the ship, revealing a shock trooper for each beam.

Tallon dodged a swipe from an Epitome of Voltage, while simultaneously nailing a shock trooper with his shotgun, sending it overboard. However, the movement caused him to loose balance, due to the added weight of the plasma charge pack, and made him land on his rear against a bulkhead. Just as an Epitome tried to reach out for him, a thin beam of DE pierced into its heart, causing it to slowly vaporize with a growl.

Aloysius then landed with a loud thud and tremor in front of him and growled, "You owe me. _Big time_." He then continued to fire into the incoming enemies with his two DEB cannons.

Tallon shook his head and got up. He holstered his shotgun and unlatched the nozzle for his plasma vapor thrower, which was now shimmering from the heat contained. He then took aim at a group of shock troopers who were trying to kill a group of soldiers.

"Hey! Get down!" Tallon shouted. After the troops dropped to the deck, he squeezed the trigger. With a high-pitched scream-screech, a blue jet of plasma erupted from the nozzle's tip. The shock troopers' bodies were disintegrated by the hazardous gas, causing their armor to clatter to the deck with no one wearing them. After two seconds, Tallon let go of the trigger on the nozzle, and the plasma jet faded into nothingness.

Then, a slight crackle of electricity went off behind him, and Tallon ducked as an Epitome of Voltage nearly fried him. He then fired his plasma vapor thrower upwards, which caused the jet to hit the adversary without putting anyone else in danger. Unfortunately, the Epitome just hovered where it was, unaffected by the plasma jet.

_Oh yeah, _Tallon thought. _Electricity's not exactly organic. Aw, dangit._

The Epitome seemed to sigh from the futile effort to kill it. Just as it was about to reach a hand out towards Tallon, a wide beam of red energy blew it into the bulkhead, where it vaporized shortly thereafter. The brown vulpine turned to see a hover tank with its quantum-cascade laser cannon smoking.

Tallon smiled…and was then knocked over on his side by a shock trooper. Even though the shield readings were useless from the electric fog, he knew that his shields were extremely low at the moment. The shock trooper was about to plunge its claw gauntlets into Tallon's chest when a thin laser popped the soldier between the eyes, causing the top part of its head to explode into bloody fragments of bone and metal.

Tallon kicked himself up to his feet to see Marcus, smiling. He grinned back, and the two brothers started covering each other with fire- one with a miniature shotgun, the other with a DeadEye laser sniper rifle. Marcus was blowing up head after head, chest after chest. Tallon, on the other hand, was just firing his shotgun hoping that the majority of the rounds would hit his target.

_Man, if only I had psychic sight like him,_ Tallon brooded to himself. He shook himself from the thought and nearly ripped a shock trooper's chest open with two shots. Marcus suddenly turned around, causing the barrel of his sniper rifle to nearly collide with Tallon's head, and then shot a shock trooper point-blank in the chest, causing it to fall over the rails into the sea.

"A little tired, Tallon?" Marcus asked.

"You know I'm not a morning person like you," Tallon whined.

The two vulpine brothers were back-to-back once more as they started mowing down a seemingly endless wave of shock troopers, while any Epitomes of Voltage were usually killed by a high-powered laser or directed energy beam of some sort.

"There's…too…many…of them!" Marcus growled between shots.

"You have it easy!" Tallon complained. "Your side has fewer enemies! Plus," _CHOOM _went his shotgun, "…you have psychic sight and a sniper rifle!"

"Blaming inheritance, are we? Wait…I think the enemy's stopped coming."

Tallon looked around. There were no more shock troopers or Epitomes coming. A slow cheer (more like a series of sighs of relief) went through the surviving soldiers on the ship.

"I don't get it," Tallon narrowed his eyes. "Humans don't give up this easily."

"I know," Marcus kept his sniper rifle level. "And the electronic fog hasn't lifted yet. That usually means that-"

"Oh, _please_ don't jinx it."

"Sorry, but you have to admit it's a little weird."

Suddenly, several places in the air bulged, and the familiar manta-shaped fighters started blowing through hover tanks with their powerful DEB cannons.

Aloysius stepped up and grunted, "Seraphim. Perfect. _Just _perfect. Tallon, get into an anti-aircraft gun. Marcus, snipe the pilots if you can."

Tallon glared at his older brother, who shrugged, "What? I didn't say anything that could've jinxed it!"

The young kitsune rolled his eyes, and then headed for an ack-ack gun. The stationary gun emplacement consisted of a seat surrounded by bulletproof/laser-refractive glass on the front, back, and top. To the sides of the seat were heavy anti-aircraft lasers, which fired at a high rate.

Tallon hopped into the chair and closed the protective glass around him. He then pressed a simple button and the turret hummed to life as two a joystick rose to his right. He grasped the joystick in his right hand, and started firing into the sky. Already, anti-aircraft fire, flak explosions, Seraphim's DE beams, and fireballs dotted the sky.

Even as a heavy gunner, Tallon was quite good at leading his shots to hit airborne targets. He downed two Seraphim in quick succession, and then proceeded for a third, which was blown out of the sky with a blast from one of the battleship's automated missile launchers. When a Seraph appeared diagonally from the ship in hopes of bombarding it, Marcus fired a laser with the best aim he could…and the Seraph spun out of control and crashed into the ocean. Water leaked into the engines, causing a small explosion to rip the advanced fighter to pieces.

Tallon was in the midst of downing another Seraph when another fired at his turret. The beam of directed energy impacted against the glass, then harmlessly reflected off at a perpendicular angle. He then fired a streak of lasers that pummeled the Seraph's engines, causing them to promptly turn the fighter into what looked like a shooting star before it crashed...into his turret.

The brown vulpine was blown right out of the gun emplacement by the force of the collision into the bulkhead, which dented a little from the impact. Luckily, his shields absorbed the damage, but shorted out with a bright flash of light.

_Why is it that the only thing I was born with was bad luck?_ Tallon conceived. He shook his head to clear the ringing sound of shellshock out of his ears as sound returned to the world like a breaking wave. He then recollected his situation. Seraphs were still assaulting the battleship and its escorts as the fighters above tried to deal with them. He was a sitting duck, virtually defenseless and had no effective weapon to combat the enemy fighters. Simply put, he was totally screwed unless he did something fast.

Marcus ran up to him and asked, "Jeez, are you alright?"

Tallon held a hand up and responded, "I'm fine, I'm fine! Now watch out!"

Tallon pushed over his sibling and hit the deck just as a Seraph's attack run scorched it with its DEB cannon, killing some soldiers' unpropitious attempt at getting out of the line of fire. He picked himself up and attempted to shoot the Seraph with his shotgun, but only landed two shots on it.

_Dangit, _he thought, _there's gotta be a better way blow those fighters out of the sky! _He looked back at the blazing wreckage of the Seraph, but more particularly towards the DEB cannon.

Marcus followed Tallon's gaze and shook his head, "You're joking, right? I don't think you'd be able to lift that thing!"

"I'll manage," Tallon retorted at his negative brother. "By the way, how can you even see it? I thought you could only see organic matter."

"Well, it is an extrasensory ability, right? Like any extrasensory ability, you can train it for improvement, remember?"

"Fine, fine," Tallon grunted as he heaved the decent-sized, but heavy DEB cannon onto his shoulder. "Dangit, where's the firing mechanism on this thing?"

He started pulling all sorts of wires, twisting gears, and pulling levers with no success. He finally got tired to searching and threw the cannon to the ground in frustration, which caused it to fire into the air.

Tallon picked it back up and searched the underside for the firing mechanism and found a simple rod that could be pushed into the weapon at a diagonal angle.

"Of course," Tallon closed his eyes, "the last thing I'd look at."

He then started using the DEB cannon to blow enemy fighters out of the sky. Even with his muscular build, the recoil for the improvised weapon was so immense that he had to take a step backwards from a one-second burst in order to prevent from falling over. Tallon soon realized that the weapon was far too powerful for him to be able to use it, or even aim with it, effectively, so he just threw it overboard.

"Any more bright ideas?" Marcus mocked.

"Well," Tallon narrowed his eyes, "I could always go back inside for the armory and risk getting scorched by DE!"

Just then, the ursine soldier next to Tallon happened to overhear the conversation and asked, "You want to borrow this, sir?" He pointed to his homing RPG.

"Sure," Tallon smiled and accepted the weapon and ammo while handing over his shotgun in return. "Thanks!"

"Anything for the commanders, sir," the bear replied, then started firing at Seraphim.

Tallon checked out the tube-like weapon as he swung it onto his shoulder. Basically, it was a simple tube with a projectile at the front and a trigger at the bottom. It also had a side-mounted scope with a small button at the side- obviously for locking onto some metal object. He immediately aimed through the scope at a Seraph. As a continuous beep went off, he pressed the button to the side, then pulled the trigger. With a loud _WHUMP_, the projectile lurched from the tube and streaked for its target. The pilot actually saw the rocket coming and performed a slipstream jump. However, the rocket was in close enough proximity for it to jump _with_ the fighter, so once the Seraph reappeared a few meters away, the rocket did as well. The explosive collided with the hull of the enemy aircraft, turning it into a ball of smoldering, twisted metal that plunged into the sea.

The kitsune then pulled another rocket from his ammo pack, attached it to the front of the tube, and twisted it to lock it into place. He then repeated the process few more times. After several times, he reached for another rocket…and found none.

"Aw, crap," Tallon swore, "I'm all out of ammo!"

"I don't think you'll be needing that anymore," Marcus smiled and pointed upwards, "Look!"

Tallon already saw them. The familiar silhouette of the Bullfrog, as well as several Cornerian fighters, were barely visible in the electronic fog. Slippy had arrived.

"Yeah!" Tallon cheered as the fighters roared by. "Reinforcements, baby!"

"Well," Marcus covered his face with one hand, "let's just hope Slippy's piloting has improved somewhat."

"Huh?" Tallon gave his brother a quizzical look, "Whadda ya mean?"

"You were born a little too late to know it, but Slippy was a _terrible_ pilot, albeit a good mechanic and engineer."

Tallon looked back to the skies to see Slippy start to shoot down (or rather kill the pilots of) Seraphs with his plasma cannons. Cornerian fighters also started joining the fray, helping the small air support do its job.

"Wow," Marcus raised an eyebrow, "he's actually gotten a little better."

At that exact moment, several Seraphs started to swarm Slippy's fighter, and he pulled off extremely simple maneuvers in a futile effort to evade the adversaries.

Marcus emphasized the last part of his sentence, "A _little_ better."

Despite this, the Seraphs were eventually sent retreating from sheer numbers of the allied forces. That, and the additional transport jets that just arrived. Shortly afterward, the electronic fog started to lift, and the soldiers cheered from the victory of the skirmish.

"Yeah," Tallon screamed at the retreating enemies. "That's right! Run back to your mothers! Run!"

"Some things just don't change," Marcus shook his head.

Tallon's eyes flashed at his older sibling, "What are you trying to imply?"

"Nothing," Marcus looked away, trying to hide a smile, "nothing."

Fox suddenly came up running to them and asked, "Was that Slippy, just now?" They watched as the Bullfrog almost collided with another fighter.

"Yep," Marcus confirmed. "That's Slippy, alright."

"Same old frog," Fox commented, then yelled up to the bridge. "Hey! Contact Slippy and tell him to get down here, pronto!"

An officer replied back to him, "Sir, yes sir! By the way, Commodore Tate wants you all up here! Includes the rest of you mercs, sir!"

"Alright," Fox shouted back up, "I'll get 'em!" He then turned to his boys, "Nice job, back there. Especially you, Marcus. Nice marksmanship."

"Thanks, dad," the blue fox grinned back. "You know me. I don't miss. _Ever_."

As his dad walked away to get the others, Tallon felt a little down from the fact that his dad only commented on his brother, not him. It was during moments like these when he felt a little jealous of all the attention Marcus got over him.

Seeing this, Marcus tried to cheer Tallon up, "Don't worry, sport. You did good, too."

"So what?" Tallon sighed. "Nobody really noticed."

"Look," Marcus turned to him, "everybody has their own trait that makes them unique. Mine is my vision, and yours is your underlying greatness. Your time to shine'll come."

"Hopefully soon," Tallon bit his lip. "Well, we better get going for the bridge now."

Tallon holstered his RPG on his back next to the plasma charge pack, and then headed for the bridge with Marcus. After climbing through a few flights of stairs and going through a few hallways, the pair eventually made it to the bridge.

The room was of an ovular shape, with windows surrounding the entire room, giving an unhindered view of the entire battleship. Computers, navigation equipment, life-support monitors, and deep-sea scanner readings were in an organized pattern throughout the room, with at least one person manning each. Entry and exit could be achieved through a small hatch, which lead to a small stairwell; Tallon and Marcus came through that just now. Commodore Tate, a middle-aged dolphin wearing a neat naval uniform complete with epaulettes and glasses, pivoted on his heel to meet the arriving commandos as they arrived.

"Welcome to the bridge, teams of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf…and Mr. Toad," he greeted in a rough tone. "I don't want to bore you with unimportant facts, so let's get right down to brass tacks." He walked over toward a radar display, with the officer operating it moving out of the way for everyone to see.

"We're right here," Tate pointed to the center of the screen. "And the siphoning facility's coordinates show here." He pointed to the same spot.

"Well?" Tallon held his arms up, inviting an answer. "Where is it? Above us?"

Suddenly, the sea around the ship started to brighten with a white glow, and the water started to foam and bubble as if the whole ocean was water in a pot on a lit stove.

"Aw, shoot," Tate ripped the glasses from his snout and grabbed a phone. "Helmsman! Back us up, full speed asap!"

The whole ship groaned, and then lurched backwards at a moderate speed. Hover tanks, SDFKs, and fighters of all sorts got out of the glow as fast they could. Just as the battleship got into safe water, a bluish beam of energy rushed out of the ocean in front of them with a tremendous roar. Seawater was splashed onto the bow of the ship by the dozens of gallons, and colossal waves pushed the battleship backwards a little.

"More like below us, Tallon," Fox answered his son's question as the beam stopped firing.

"By the gods," Tate murmured, and then ordered. "Ensign! Status report! And I want a deep-sea scan, now!"

"All systems are in the green, sir," he replied, "escort outside is A-okay, sir."

Another officer announced, "Sir, scans report something weird, and you all might want to see it!"

The group shifted to the scan station. On the screen was the faint outline of an unknown, distorted shape. Purplish lines surrounded the whole screen, even over the shape.

"Something's jamming the scan, sir," the officer pointed out. "They've got some sort of disruption field around the entire base."

"Was the scan able to pick up anything useful?" Tate asked; with his glasses now back on his snout.

"Yes, sir," the officer chattered. "There are tons of anti-watercraft turrets surrounding the facility. We can't get anywhere near that thing with seafighters or subs, sir."

"Good thing we have something for this," Tate tilted his head sideways for a moment, then shouted. "Helmsman, move the ship as far to the middle of the facility as you can get! Weapons management, I want a torpedo on that facility!"

"What kind, sir?" the soldier asked.

"The big one, of course! Helmsman, are we there yet?"

The phone crackled, "We're as close to middle as it gets, sir!"

"Weapons, management, you know the rest!"

The soldier nodded, then took a key out of his pocket and put it into a keyhole underneath a box with caution paint all over it. After turning the key, he flipped the box open, revealing a red button surrounded by text reading, "Warning!"

"Hole on to your hats and glasses people," Tate screamed into the intercom. "This is gonna be one hell of a recoil!"

Tallon crouched down and held onto a safety rail, bracing for the sudden lurch he knew was coming. It came, and boy, was it one big lurch. The ship shuddered, and anybody on it would have thought that it rose a whole foot out of the water from the force that the torpedo was launched. A few moments after everything settled back to normal, Tallon stood upright again. Then a dull thud sounded off below, barely audible.

After waiting for several seconds, Tate asked, "Did the torpedo hit?"

"Sir," weapons management spoke slowly, "I don't believe this, but the torpedo exploded five-hundred meters above the target depth. Something caused it to set off on its own accord, sir."

Tate cursed, "For the-…Dangit, we have to do it the old-fashioned way, then. Get to the launch tubes, get down there, and blow that stinkin' facility up! Helmsman! Back us up so that our troops don't get cut to pieces by the facility's defenses!" The phone crackled, and the ship pulled backwards.

"Sorry, sir," an ensign objected to Tate's second sentence. "But the siphoning facility's about five-thousand-six-hundred-seventy feet down there. Water pressure's too great for our diving suits to handle."

"Not mine," Ace smiled. "Slippy, I think it's time we show our friends how two brains are better than one."

"I think it's 'two heads'," Slippy corrected. "And yes. Everyone, let's get down to the launch tubes!"

_Well, _Tallon brooded to himself, _being in the ocean's better than getting seasick looking at it._ He then followed the teams as they opened the hatch and headed downstairs.

After descending to the bottom level of the battleship, the teams finally made it to the launch tubes. The room was about the size of the first floor of the average house. One wall of the room was covered in storage compartments containing conventional diving suits, air tanks, and weapons, as well as some work tables with large boxes on them. The other walls were lined with tubes that launched military personnel into the water without having to flood an entire room in order to do so. Soldiers and newly-arrived Spades were there as well.

Ace and Slippy immediately went up to the tables and opened the boxes, revealing several dozen strange-looking diving suits. Like any Lylatian diving suit, it had the appearance of an azure full-body armor suit, complete with helmets. Unlike them each suit had an outer covering made of a sandpaper-esque material that had hexagonal shapes completely covering it. Also, the boots, instead of ending in a blunt point, ended in inwards-curving, streamlined fins. The helmets themselves, instead of a breathing apparatus, had large spheres with strange, tentacle-like appendages attached in its place.

"Now ordinarily," Slippy began, "diving suits have a limited range of about two-thousand feet and about an hour of air. However, these suits are different. Tell 'em, Ace."

"Right," Ace nodded. "Together, Slippy and I have created a diving suit that can withstand immense pressures and has a virtually limitless air supply. It's able to withstand such enormous pressures because inside this thick outer plating," he tapped the chest area of a diving suit, giving off a dull thump, "is a layer of reinforced glass."

"…Glass?!" Aloysius asked, bewildered. "You expect us to last under heavy fire with an armor made of glass?!"

"Yep," Ace smiled. "But only _if_, and only _if,_ it can get through the new shield system. Adder, I'm just gonna borrow your shotgun…," The team leader didn't even have a chance to object before the albino relieved him of his weapon. Ace aimed the shotgun at the helmet from a single foot away. He then pulled the trigger, causing forty lasers to come out of the barrel with a sound close enough to an explosion to be called just that. A multitude of light panels sprung up from the armor and blocked each incoming laser. Everybody had to give credit to Ace and Slippy for creating a shield system that could withstand that.

As the boom resonated throughout the room, Ace checked the shield readings.

"Eighty-one percent capacity," Ace smiled. "You can have this back, now." Adder accepted his shotgun back with amazement.

Slippy then started, "As you can tell, our armor has more than enough potential to last down there. Glass, though very easy to shatter, can withstand extremely high pressures- up to the force of nineteen of Corneria's atmospheres on it. Now for the air supply. It simply doesn't have one."

Leon, obviously not buying it, asked, "So what's the catch?"

"It makes its own air," Slippy grinned. "That device on the helmet uses an electric current fueled by the armor to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. While the hydrogen is expended back out into the water, oxygen enters the helmet for you to breathe, and carbon dioxide leaves the same way the hydrogen does. And-"

"But wait," Cris interrupted. "That separation requires a lot of electricity in order to carry out. How do you know there's enough to last?"

"Which is why I said, 'virtually limitless air supply,'" Ace repeated. "Any movement you make requires your brain to send an electric signal down the spinal cord and into the nerves necessary to move the body part. The armor taps into that electricity source, supplying the suit with new energy- energy that can be used for the oxygen strainer and shields- through a bit of integration with your own body. Each movement you make- even the slightest twitch- can generate power. The worst that can happen is getting your reflexes slightly diminished. And when I say 'slightly', mean very, very slightly. About a tenth of a second."

Tallon huffed, "Heh, you guys sure make a good team, don'tcha? Nice job. So how do we put these on?"

"You'll need help," Slippy rolled his eyes. "We can do it for you guys. Just don't tell Amanda that I snuck out of our house to join you all." The latter statement extracted a laugh from everyone, "No, seriously. I mean it."

Fox, Krystal, Falco, and Marcus went first, taking about a minute each. Tallon was up next. _Why is it that I'm always the last one in the team to do something?_ he thought. Ace and Slippy began by removing the plasma charge pack from his back, then put on the body armor first, which, to Tallon's surprise, fit over him much like an ordinary wetsuit, albeit more rigid. Next were his boots and gloves, which fit tightly on to him. Last was his helmet, which hissed as the bottom connected with the rest of the armor.

Ace tapped his visor and asked, "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Tallon responded.

"Alright. Any weird feelings, more specifically in your lungs?"

"Nope."

"Okay, you're set. Next!"

Tallon donned his plasma charge pack, and went to the weapons rack to replenish his supply of rockets when a familiar gold-colored Spade stepped in front of him.

"Good afternoon, Commander McCloud junior," Xamuros spun his head around. "May I advise for you to use a different weapon? Projectiles aren't really that effective underwater."

"Good afternoon to you too, sir," Tallon smiled back, discarding the rocket tube. "Nice to see you again. Don't you need a diving suit?"

"Negative," he responded. "My body is entirely watertight. I'll be fine."

"Dang, I forgot!" Ace slapped his head, and then hurried up the stairs. After a few seconds, he came back down with what looked like a small sub-machine gun in his arms. The weapon had a narrow design, and had a laser sight attached to the top. The barrel was quite small, but a little longer than usual, meaning it was more accurate. It had a clip that was loaded at a horizontal angle on the right of the weapon, with the round ejector just in front of it. A retractable butt-stock could be seen at the end.

"Well, Xamuros," Ace smiled again, "not all projectiles are ineffective underwater. Tallon, may I present to you my latest invention?"

"Go on right ahead, man," Tallon shrugged. "I don't know what that tiny gun'll do for me, though."

"Then follow me right to the firing range," Ace ordered. Tallon rolled his eyes for having to climb more stairs, and then followed his serpentine friend through a few flights and landings. After reaching the firing range, Ace pressed a button to make the dummy of a human to appear. The dummy, even though it was wearing a flak jacket and other armor, looked much like the humans' leader.

"See him?" Ace cocked the weapon. "His name is 'Iradumbass'," He waited until Tallon stopped chuckling from the name's resemblance to Iradanus, "Watch what this tiny SMG will do to him."

Ace aimed down the sight and fired a one-second burst, adding up four rounds. The sound, to Tallon's surprise, was equal to that of a high-powered rifle in rapid-fire. Then, he looked at the target dummy to see that each round had pierced through the flak jacket, then into the dummy itself. About a second later, four, two-inch-wide holes appeared where the rounds hit with a small series of bangs. The albino smiled, pulled the loader back, removed the magazine to replace it with a fresh one, and recocked the action.

"See," Ace smirked, "this weapon, the M-PACT sub-machine gun, fires high-velocity, armor-piercing bullets. Upon piercing an object, whether it be the insides of a vehicle or flesh, the rounds blow apart like a frag grenade, causing quite a bit of internal damage. Doesn't have that bad of a rate of fire either. So you want to reconsider how weak this is?"

"Where do you get the time to make this kind of stuff?" Tallon asked, accepting the weapon.

"In the early morning," Ace answered. "Now let's get back to the others. Slippy probably suited 'em up by now."

_Great. More stairs,_ Tallon sighed as he reluctantly descended back down several slights with slight sluggishness.

After reaching the launch tubes, Ace suited himself up in his armor and spoke into the radio, "Testing. Testing. Can everyone hear me?" A few 'Yes's rang out, "Good. Xamuros? Spades? What about you guys?" Some more confirmations went out, "Alright, we're set. Into the launch tubes we go!"

Tallon stepped inside of one of the gray cylinders, which closed around him after he entered. Shortly after, holes in the bottom opened, causing water to flood into the cylinder at a reasonable pace. Once he was fully enveloped by seawater, a dull rumble went off as pressure built up inside the chamber. Finally, the launch tubes bottom opened up, causing him to rocket out from the pressure built up. To his surprise, he found he could breathe normally without hindrance of any sort. He descended through the clear water at a high speed until darkness surrounded him like a veil and he decelerated.

The brownish kitsune twisted a knob on his helmet to activate night vision, and the world became an eerie world of green, white, gray, and black. Tallon kicked so that he was facing down and started into a neat breaststroke. After about ten minutes, he reached the sea floor, causing a small plume of sand to be kicked up. Several more plumes in close proximity signaled that the rest had arrived.

"Alright, teams," he could hear the radio crackle with his dad's voice, "we started up a bit back in order to avoid detection, so let's get moving already. C'mon."

Tallon started into a slow trot, but found that under Aquas' higher gravity, he could actually walk quite normally. Then, he broke into a moderate jog, allowing him to catch up with his dad.

"This is kinda cool how we can just walk underwater without worry, eh?" Tallon tried to start a conversation.

"Heh, sure is, son," he chattered back. "Haven't done an underwater mission for quite a while. About a couple decades, I think. Anglar War, on Venom."

"Yeah, but we're _walking,_ dad!" Tallon exclaimed. "This is so cool!"

Fox sighed, "Let's see how long you'll keep up that enthusiasm."

"Huh?"

"No, it's nothing. Hey, do you all see something? Look ahead, everyone!"

Tallon jerked his head forward to sea ridge up ahead, with a faint halo of light on its upper edge. The siphoning facility was near.

"Alright, everyone!" Adder called out. "Let's take this thing down and…whoa."

"'Whoa'? Whadda ya mean 'whoa'?" Tallon asked. He looked over the ridge and gasped. "Holy crap."

More and more troops peeked over the ridge to find out what the others were gasping about. There were three main things- first, being the siphoning facility itself. The siphoning facility, unlike the one back on Katina, wasn't so tiny. The pyramid-like structure was the same, but surrounding it was a network of tunnels that branched off into large buildings. All in all, the siphoning facility was the size of a large city, so destroying would be quite the mundane task. Second, everyone was astounded by the number of Drones, Sentries patrolling the waters around the base, and defenses on the facility itself. There were easily hundreds of Drones and Sentries each, along with a few dozen plasma machine gun turrets and stationary HDEB (**H**eavy **D**irected **E**nergy **B**eam) turrets on or around the base. Third, was the fact that, enveloping the entire station, was a gigantic, pulsating force field of some sort.

"This might take a while," Tallon commented.

* * *

Back aboard the battleship, Commodore Tate paced up and down the bridge with much impatience. _Why the heck aren't those soldiers back by now? It should be easy to just blow the dang thing up!_ he thought.

A strange feeling made him halt his pacing. He felt somehow as if he was being watched. Well, of course he was being watched by the crewmen, but another presence made him shiver a little bit.

Suddenly, a descending gasp sounded out, causing the officers and ensigns around him to stand out of their chairs. Everyone hurried to the front windows, where a good view of the battleship's bow could be seen. There, soldiers were also staring out to sea, obviously hearing the same sound they all heard.

"What in the name of-" Tate started. He was cut short as a gigantic arm snaked through the air from the ocean and crashed down onto the bottom deck, crushing several troops already. The ship leaned forward as a gigantic mech pulled itself out of the water.

The whole ship leaned to the point that Tate lost his balance and hit the glass windows…then started right into the many-mandibled face of a Harvester. This one, however, didn't just have two siphoning tentacles- more like a dozen, each snaking across the decks, draining the energy from those unfortunate enough to meet with them.

Tate didn't even make a sound as the Harvester heaved up an arm, revealing a large barrel rippling with heat attached. As particles where drawn into the barrel of the massive, charging weapon, Tate stayed quiet, despite the panicked screams around him. He closed his eyes, and hoped that the gods would smile on his family and bring them good fortune.

The Harvester fired a few seconds later, and the gigantic blast that hit the middle of the superstructure. An enormous fireball engulfed the battleship and the escort trying in vain to kill its assailant. Every Lylatian vehicle and naval unit was disintegrated from the intense heat, and before long, the only thing left in the general area was a Harvester that plunged downwards to return to the base.

* * *

"Are they completely cut off, now?"

"Yes, sir. The Harvester just destroyed the battleship and its escort."

"Good. Has anyone acted with suspicion towards you?"

"No, sir. No one even knows that their real friend is behind POW bars by now."

"Perfect. Prepare the trap, and keep me updated when you can."

"Of course, sir. Farewell, sir."

* * *

* * *

Here's chapter 12's first part, this time starring Tallon McCloud!

...In all of his unnoticed glory...

Anyways, about the little history of Aquas there... Yes, I made it up. No, I didn't check to see if there already was an official history of the planet. But yes, I did enjoy making it up. Deal with it! Anyhoo, there are greater forces working behind the scenes in this chapter, leading off to a good surprise at the end. Enjoy!


	22. Chapter 12, Part 2: The Relative Calm

Chapter 12, Part 2: The (Relative) Calm

"How the hell are we gonna take that thing down?" Tallon asked in amazement, "We only have enough explosives for a city block's worth!"

"I dunno," Brutus replied, "but we're gonna have to manage. The first problem is the shield, though. Anyone know what it is?" No one- not even a single Spade answered.

"Perfect," Wolf scowled. "Seems like we're jumping into the battlefield blindly once more, eh?"

"Guess so," Fox bit his lip, barely visible through the helmet. "Alright, here we go. Xamuros, we need you to send a few Spades to scout ahead. Marcus, Cris- you two watch over them and snipe anything other than them that moves. When it's clear, we move in. Any objections? No? Good. Xamuros, it's your call now."

The field master nodded, then motioned for three of his fellow kinsmen to do some reconnaissance. As they warily made their way for the bubble-like shield, the two sharpshooters took careful watch over them.

"Do you see anything?" Tallon whispered to his brother.

"No, not at all," Marcus answered, also in a whisper. "Normally, that would provide some solace, but here, it just makes me worried."

"I know. Hey, they stopped moving!"

The Spades made a final search of the seabed, then motioned that they were clear. Tallon and the others then vaulted over the ridge and cautiously headed toward the Spades. Tallon got out the M-PACT sub-machine gun and kept it chest-level, ready for anything that would jump out at the group. Beads of perspiration collected throughout his body, and he tried to keep a straight demeanor despite the stress he was going through.

_It's just too dang quiet around here…,_he thought.

His mother's soothing, mental voice replied back, [_Don't worry. It'll be fine. Just as long as we all stick together._]

_I really hope you're right._

Tallon then stepped onto something hard in the sand. He looked down just to see a jagged rock, shrugged, and continued onwards. Then, he heard a weird whooshing sound from behind, and the whole group wheeled around…to see one of the strangest creatures any of them had ever seen.

Out of the sandy seafloor, a vaguely humanoid being appeared. However, the stature was of a much taller creature- at least a couple meters taller. As it stepped closer, it revealed itself to have narrow feet that sprouted yard-long fins backwards. Instead of hands, the entity had large, fin-like sickles sprouting from the wrist. At the shoulder, two similar, albeit shorter sickles presented themselves, gleaming in the light picked up by the night vision. On its back was another sickle that formed into a dorsal fin, swaying gently in the ocean current. The most striking feature of this being was its head- it was of a round shape, with bulbous, deep-blue eyes that were almost to the sides of the head. It also had a large maw with rows of teeth the size of steak knives. Gills were present in neat slits on either side of the creature's gullet, and strange, jagged protrusions rose from the top and bottom of the head.

Xamuros appeared to gulp a little and whispered, "Aquatic Koteku. Combination of human and shark DNA."

This aquatic creature, stark-white against the dark colors of the ocean, shook the remaining sand off of its body, then spoke in a rasping, slightly bubblish voice, "Youuuu proooceeeeeed no furrrtherrrr. Surrrrrendurrrr yourrrselvessss…orrrrr perrrrrishhhhhh."

"Oh, really?" Falco cracked his neck. "You and what army?"

The Koteku turned backwards and rasped, "Brotherrrrrsssss! Rise! Killllll themmm!"

Several patches of sand undulated slightly, and then broke apart as five identical Aquatic Koteki rose from their slumber.

"Oh, you just _had_ to ask, didn't you?!" Slippy griped.

"Hey," Falco defended, "better me than you!"

Instead of dashing for a frontal assault, the Koteki twisted their torsos around so that their legs were perfectly sideways, then attached their feet to form massive tailfins. This gave the creatures a more shark-like appearance as they propelled themselves at great speeds toward the almost-stupidly, tightly-packed group.

As everyone picked their targets and fired, one Koteku snuck up from the opposite side and dashed into the circle, catching a Lylatian within its maw, then promptly gnashed it to shreds. The whole front of the Koteku's face was smothered in a mixture of sickening blood and gore, as was the water around it. The Lylatians and Spades tried to adapt to this attack pattern, but the Koteki conjured up another- this time, getting down and dirty by slashing at their adversaries with their sickles on foot.

Tallon struggled to avoid getting bitten, slashed, or stabbed as he tried to return fire. Visibility was quickly getting worse, as the water changed from blue to a murky mixture of red and black clouds (from the Spades). Trying to get a better shot, he leapt out of the cloud…and straight into a Koteku, who had been anticipating that action.

Fortunately, the brownish kitsune was the first to react, firing away with his super-powered SMG. The Koteku didn't even flinch from the storm of lead as it swatted him aside, then proceeded into the bloody cloud for more prey.

_What does it take to kill these things?_ Tallon conceived, bewildered that he emptied at least six, no…at least nine rounds into the mutant. Just then, several large (and rather bloody) chunks of ice broke through the cloud, landing at his feet.

[_Just some cryokinesis and a few well-placed shots._] Krystal sounded off in his head.

Tallon managed to smile a little, then cross-leveled his current clip with a fresh magazine. He then thought a bit, shrugged, and unholstered the plasma vapor thrower nozzle, switching his SMG to his left hand. The vulpine merely fired a single shot into the murky waters, and in spite of the fact that the shot was way too high to hit anything, caught some attention. Two Koteki dashed for him, and he let loose a jet of plasma, disintegrating the first one. Doing his best to aim the high-powered SMG with one hand, he also drove two bullets into the other's head, though not killing it.

The Koteku then went into a berserk state, dashing at Tallon and swinging its sickles at him. Even with the advanced shield system, his shield readings were in the fifties before Marcus blew a six-inch-wide hole through the monster's head.

"Took your time, didn't you?" Tallon shook his head and searched for another target.

"Just be glad we took half of 'em down," his sibling rolled his eyes…then was tackled over by a Koteku. Tallon swore under his breath, then unloaded the remainder of his current clip into the human-shark hybrid, turning it into a mess of bloody chunks.

Tallon exchanged his magazines, and then aimed down the sight back into the murky cloud.

"Guys!" he screamed into the radio. "Are there any more in there?"

Adder stepped out from the cloud, with the tip of his shotgun bubbling from the intense heat from firing. He answered, "No. I think that's it."

"Incorrrrrectttttt…"

Tallon looked down towards the source of the voice as sand scattered through the water as it burst out from underneath him and stabbed its sickles into his chest. Though the shields managed to absorb the damage, the young soldier felt the wind get knocked clear out him. After being sent through the air (or rather, the water) a few feet, he crumpled into a ball, gasping for breath. While everyone was still disoriented from the sudden attack, the Koteku prepared its sickles for an ending blow. Just as it was about to plunge them into his skull, it suddenly snapped up, then fell to the ground. Aloysius stood behind the corpse, cracking his knuckles.

"Well?" he growled. "Are we gonna sit here all day, or what? We got a siphoning facility to take down!"

"Aloysius' right," Wolf stood up from his crouched stance. "We oughta get moving."

Now dwindled by two Spades and seven Lylatians, the group advanced forward toward the shield looming ahead. Tallon was one of the first to get close up to it, but he immediately ducked down, as did everyone else. Apparently, their recent skirmish with the Koteki had raised the alarm around the base. Humans in diving suits, Sentries, and Drones were scrambling about the area, getting into defensive positions. Getting even close to the entrance was going to take some serious planning.

"This doesn't look good," Xamuros stiffened up, clearly under stress. "I'm counting at least a few hundred defending units stationed outside."

"First things first, we've gotta get inside the shield," Ace contemplated. He picked up a good-sized rock and flung in toward the shield. With a shimmering effect, the rock passed straight through to the other side. Unconvinced, Ace stuck an Uzi-32 into the shield, which also passed through, unhindered. Ace finally stepped right through the shield, checked himself for anything wrong and confirmed, "Seems alright. Nothing bad's happening."

Tallon and the rest passed through the shield with no harm. Xamuros was about to pass through when the shield electrocuted him and repelled him backwards.

"What the-" Xamuros stammered. He gave a good smack to the shield, but his arm bounced backwards. The rest of the Spades found that they could not pass through the shield either.

Aloysius tried to ram himself inside, but he was blown backwards. He growled, "Why the hell can't we get inside?!"

Slippy examined the shield and explained, "It seems to be a shield of some sort that repels and disrupts electrical equipment."

"What?" Krystal asked. "Then how come our electronics are fine?"

"No," Ace scowled, "Look closely. The HUD is frozen. Radio and scanning devices are also gonna be down too. I guess this also explains why the battleship couldn't scan the entire base and why the torpedo exploded so far from its target. The targeting system must have shorted out, causing an emergency detonation."

Xamuros cursed then spoke solemnly, "I guess you're all on your own from now on."

"You're joking, right?" Tallon's already-low hopes fell even lower. "You're expecting the-" he counted everyone, "-the twelve of us to take on a heavily guarded siphoning base, set up the bomb, and get out alive?"

The other lone soldier with them corrected, "Actually, thirteen, sir."

"Fine. Thirteen soldiers are supposed to take on that facility, blow it up, and survive?"

"In the order of the questions, it's going to have to be only you guys for now; no, this bomb is too weak to destroy the entire base, and it shorted out anyways; and I really hope the last part holds true."

"I've been in some pretty crapped-up missions in my time," Adder sighed, "but I have to admit that this is _the_ craziest mission I'll take on."

"Don't worry," Xamuros reassured. "I'm going to try to make contact with the battleship and get some reinforcements. You guys go on ahead and try to get inside."

_How are we even expected to complete this mission?!_ Tallon thought, _The fact that our electronics are down is bad enough, but without Aloysius or the Spades, we're gonna be fish in a barrel for the humans!_

"Alright guys," Fox turned to everyone, "we need a plan, and we need a good one. Any ideas?"

Panther dashed behind a low-lying rock and peeked out towards the base, then reported, "As far as I can tell, the facility is heavily guarded from all directions- even from the top. The most logical way we can possibly get inside would be to go underneath, but I don't have a single clue as to how we're going to do that."

"Panther's right," Slippy nodded. "The only vulnerable point is from beneath the facility, but we don't have any drills or digging equipment. We don't even have any high-yield explosives; they would attract too much attention anyways."

"There's gotta be an easier way in there…" Falco grimaced. "Security should be lay- even if by a bit- on the side opposite from the entrance, but if we try to get to that side, it's going to take a while, and we're gonna risk getting spotted."

Ace quiet in thought, finally spoke, "I didn't know you were such a tactician, Falco. That is actually the best idea we've got."

"Yeah," Marcus chuckled, "but those moments are far in between for him."

"Shut up!" Falco grumbled. "I'm supposed to be the ace pilot, right? I ain't a master planner!"

"So it's settled then," Wolf stretched. "We're going to find the side that's opposite the entrance. Problem is- where's the entrance?"

Cris, looking through her scope, answered, "From our perspective, it's on the west side, so if we follow the shield east, we should get there."

"Sounds good to me," Adder shrugged. "Now we can risk taking a bit longer to do this, so I want everyone to crawl for that side. I _don't_ want the enemy upon us right now. Now, let's move out."

Tallon let out a small sigh, then fell to a prone position and started crawling on his belly as fast as he could. He ignored the sharp rocks that scraped against his armor and pressed on along with everyone else.

* * *

As the group made it to the halfway mark, Xamuros, his Spades, and Aloysius were trying to contact the battleship.

"What do you mean you can't get a fix on the ship?" Xamuros whispered harshly, "It should be easy to get a signal onto a battleship the size of three parallel hotels lying down!"

"I'm sorry, sir," a corporal apologized, "but none of us can get anything. We've tried all known Lylatian frequencies, and the best we can get is jazz music!"

"Jazz music, my right!" Xamuros started pacing. "Why can't we get a fix on it?"

"Um, Xamuros?" Aloysius pointed. "I think I found the reason."

Xamuros looked behind them to see large pieces of wreckage start to descend for the sea floor. He magnified his vision to see that they, to his horror, were parts of the battleship. This was made even more horrible by the fact that parts of hover tanks and SDFKs started sinking as well. The scene was made even more gruesome as bodies of Lylatians- whole and dismembered- sunk with them as well. The water started to turn a murky red.

"Oh my God," Xamuros gasped. "What could've done that?"

A descending gasp filled his audio reception devices, and he wheeled around to see a Harvester start to make its way toward the group. Spades were already firing at the monster as it lumbered on for the supersoldiers.

"Stop!" he yelled. "Stop! Cease fire and get out of there! Get into Longswords and retreat!"

The Spades fired their last shots, then turned into Longswords and tried to flee. The Harvester used its gravity disruptor to merely crush them into small, metal spheres. Soon, Xamuros and Aloysius were left alone.

Sand kicked up in puffs as a dozen Aquatic Koteki surrounded them. Not giving up without a fight, Xamuros started firing with both of his weapons while spinning around. The Koteki barely winced with each round and just grabbed hold of him from all sides, restraining him. Even though he could barely move his head, he could see that the Harvester had Aloysius in its grasp. One of the human-sharks went up to him.

"You'rrrrre luckyyy youuu twooo arrrre wannnnted alivvvve," it chattered to the field master. "At leassssst be forrrrtunate forrrr thatttt." It reached a long sickle for his head, "Nowww…sleeeeeeeeep."

Despite the fact that he thought it wasn't possible, he started to get drowsy. The world around him started to get blurry, then his photoreceptors started to darken. He tried to stay awake, but his efforts were futile. Once again, he was in the black void.

* * *

"The Xamuros and Aloysius of Star Serpent have been captured, sir."

"Good work. Any progress on the remaining eleven?"

"I'm working on it. We're nearing the base, so it won't be long, sir."

"I don't have an infinite amount of patience. Capture them quickly, but catch them off-guard. Failure to capture a single one of these Lylatians could ruin everything."

"I understand, sir. Over and out…I wonder if anyone has suspected yet…"

* * *

Tallon snapped up his head and groaned, "Are we there yet?"

"Almost, son," Fox replied. "Just keep at it."

The entire group had been crawling for about ten minutes, and Tallon hoped that his dad really meant 'almost'. He was really getting tired of moving so slowly just to get to a simple destination. It was nearly as stupid as climbing a mountain with a unicycle. His patience wasn't one of his stronger points, so he began to scowl now.

Suddenly, Cris, who was at the front of the group, held up a hand. Understanding this signal, everyone stopped dead in their tracks. She then got up to a crouch and scouted the area with her scope, then made a beckoning motion. Tallon sighed in relief and got to his feet.

Sure enough, the amount of patrolling enemy units in this part of the base was smaller…though not by much. Tallon could easily distinguish the faint outlines of several Sentries, a few Drones, two PMG bunkers, and a dozen human soldiers. But compared to the other parts of the base, this was slightly relieving.

"Okay," Adder began in a whisper. "This doesn't look too bad. Marcus! Cris! I want you two to kill any operators you can see in those PMG bunkers, and then proceed to the Sentries. Panther! Brutus! Take down those Drones! Falco; you, Ace, and Leon will provide suppressing fire while the rest of us get into position around cover points. We'll then provide our own covering fire while you guys get into further cover of your own. After we neutralize the threats here, Tallon will head over to one bunker under covering fire and light it up with his PVT to kill anybody else who may have shown up, then we'll get inside through that."

"Seems fine by me," Fox got out his laser and plasma blaster pistols and continued. "Now is everyone ready?" Some nods and confirmations, "Alright. Marcus, Cris; do it."

The two snipers started firing into the bunkers, killing the occupants, and catching the attention of the supporting units. Panther and Brutus started firing onto the Drones as Ace, Falco, and Leon fired into the crowd of infantry and Sentries, scattering them like embers in a fire. As the two sharpshooting vulpines moved on to the Sentries, and the first Drone was downed, the rest of the group took the chance to get into position.

Tallon sprinted for his selected cover location- a mound of bleached coral. The fact that it's organic would protect him from plasma, while the thickness of it would guard him from lasers and DE. He ducked behind the mound, and peeked over. Since no one was aiming for him, he started firing some rounds off of his M-PACT so that his bursts were staggered with everyone else's. He nailed down a few soldiers with his weapon just as suppressing trio started moving up as well. Tallon sought the chance to reload his SMG, then holstered it as he unlatched his PVT's nozzle.

Suddenly, plasma shots sizzled at the coral mound, which shed off small bits from each shot. Tallon cursed as he realized that the bunker restocked itself with operators. For now, he was totally pinned down.

The rest of the teams started firing into the bunkers, causing small delays in each long burst of plasma. Wolf suddenly yelled, "Now, Tallon! Go!"

Upon hearing this, he snapped up his head, then vaulted over the coral mound. Despite the fact that the sharp bits raked across his back a bit, he rolled into a sprint (it was more like a slow run, due to the burden he was carrying) for the PMG bunker on the left. After reaching its side, he let loose a stream of plasma vapor from his nozzle. Satisfied from the ensuing screams, he slowly walked for the front of the bunker, allowing the jet of plasma to cause even more damage.

Tallon confirmed that the bunker was clear, then kicked off of the seafloor and swam inside. He then holstered his nozzle, and then grabbed the PMG, turning it for the opposite bunker. He fired a continuous stream of plasma bolts, suppressing the humans as the remainder of the group swam inside the bunker with him. The young kitsune stopped firing and turned to everyone else.

"Okay, we're inside," Leon spoke. "So now what? The door's locked!"

"That's because it's pressure-sealed," Slippy pointed out. "We can't get inside because water would then surge inside the base. Water pressure would flood the whole thing then, or at least to the nearest sealed compartment."

"That's it!" Ace suddenly exclaimed, startling everyone. "That's how we destroy the base! If we open the sealed compartments, we can flood this base to the siphoning chamber and destroy it!"

"Hm," Slippy mused aloud. "That would also give us an advantage inside the base, since no soldier in there is ready for aquatic combat inside the facility! The only thing we'd have to worry about are Sentries and other mechs! Impressive idea, partner in crime."

"Yeah," Ace smirked, "I'm a genius, if you haven't noticed yet. Now, can somebody open the door? We certainly can't kick it open."

Without a word, Adder walked up to it and took out a grenade from his launcher. He then chucked it at the door, causing a small explosion to ensue. Even though it just weakened the door, water pressure then it to groan as it crunched inwards and was blown inside. With no protection from the door anymore, salt water surged inside the room. Tallon could distinctly hear surprised yelps from the soldiers inside.

The group waited for the rumbling of the water to subside before proceeding inside the facility. They were in a connecting corridor that probably led to the rest of the base. The corridor was the shape of a triangular prism, with glass (most likely bulletproof) on all sides of the prism- even the floor.

Tallon looked around the room to see several scattered corpses of drowned humans. Rather than float for the ceiling, they were collapsed on the floor from the powerful gravity of the planet. The vulpine couldn't help but imagine the horror of going through such a long, painful death through deprivation of air. He could almost see the humans struggling for breath, then just giving up from the fact that they were about a mile underwater.

"War does not come without death," Adder spoke solemnly. "The ones who really suffer are the ones who experience death around them. Life comes at the cost of another. It's up to those who survive to bear the weight of the sin of extinguishing another's life."

"It's best not to linger," Wolf tried to change the subject. "This is going to be a quicker mission than we thought. All we need to do is blow open each door we come across, and hope that no mechs are on the other side. Come on. Let's get to work."

* * *

"They've made it inside, sir. Unfortunately, they've found a rather simple way to destroy the Aquas siphoning facility."

"Then it's best to stop them before they do. I understand that some of your aquatic brethren lurk in that area. It would be wise to use their power to aid you in this mission."

"Understood, sir."

* * *

Tallon actually believed that this would be a difficult mission. However, it was steadfastly becoming a simple, boring one. Blow open the pressure-sealed door. Progress into the next room. Kill any mechs inside. Rinse and repeat. So far, the only mechs they've encountered were the ones outside the base. Humans merely drowned in the waters, but were now given a quick, painless death through a headshot out of pity.

"Does anyone get the idea that this is way too easy?" Brutus questioned. "The only guys in here are humans. Not a single mech so far, either."

Tallon had to agree with him on that, and gazed outside. He thought he saw a stream of bubbles in humanoid shape. He blinked, and it was gone.

"Commander?" the soldier in front of them turned to him. "Is everything all right, sir?"

"Yeah," Tallon looked around. "It's all good."

But no later than when he expelled the last word that the soldier was engulfed in a maelstrom of bubbles, ripping him to gory pieces.

"Holy crap," Tallon cursed.

The rest of the teams swiveled around to see the bubbles converge. After a few moments, a bluish entity emerged. It was of a stature not unlike an elderly man- hunched back, knees bent to support the awkward position. However, that was where all similarities with a human being ended. The feet were actually two feet long, with three, spread-out claws at the end. Jutting out of the hip was some kind of flat abdomen like a praying mantis'. Its arms, just as long as its legs, were folded up, and each had a curved, saw-toothed, downwards-pointing blade. Its head was long and angular, quite possibly to contain a large brain. It had gleaming, red eyes that pierced the dimly-lit waters, and a cheek-less lockjaw.

"I'm guessing," Krystal frowned, "Epitome of Water?"

To everyone's surprise, it responded in a scratchy tone, "What else?"

The commandos-for-hire started peppering the creature with lasers and plasma, actually punching holes in its apparently fragile body. When enough holes were punched in it, it reverted into a multitude of bubbles, which zoomed about the room behind everyone else, and reverted back.

"That was quite dull," it groaned, "but now, it's my turn."

The Epitome of Water started swinging its blades at Tallon, who was unfortunate enough to be the closest person next to it. It performed a variety of spins and flips that made it nearly impossible to guess what it would do next. One time it slashed at him, leapt behind him to get over a volley of fire, and then pushed him into the volley, causing him to get hit by his own friends' rounds. Another, it sidestepped Tallon's futile attempt to whack it with his M-PACT's butt-stock, then, instead of slashing him as expected, used the curved part of a blade to pull out his legs from under him.

"Why me?" Tallon groaned.

"I don't know," it responded. "You just seem a bit more noticeable than the others. Fine, I'll go after the short guy."

Slippy glared at Tallon and griped, "Thanks a bunch." He was promptly kicked off his feet by the Epitome.

This whole ordeal continued with more kicks, swipes, and friendly fire until everyone ended up on the ground, exhausted.

"To tell you the truth," Panther spoke, "I think he's just playing around with us."

The Epitome leaned on one blade and yawned, "Bingo. There just isn't any guy here who understands how to even injure me. So why bother trying to kill you all immediately? I want to have some fun doing it. Now get up. Let's go through this again."

Suddenly, a dark voice went, "Enough fooling around."

"Another Shadow?" it sighed. "Fine, fine. And I thought you were all children."

"I assure you that I am more serious. NOW FINISH THE OBJECTIVE!"

"This is what I get for getting dragged into sentience. Those humans can all go through the apocalypse again, for all I care."

The Epitome went up to Fox and was about to stomp onto his head, when it groaned, "Oh, yes. You're all wanted alive, now aren't you?...Ah, what's one life different from none?" He brought the blade over the vulpine's neck.

"You leave my dad alone!" Tallon growled, getting to his feet.

The Epitome turned his head towards him and smiled, "I can't wait to see what you could do to me." It brought the blade closer to his dad's neck.

Tallon holstered his M-PACT and pulled out his plasma vapor thrower and grinned, "Turn you into steam, that's what."

"Oh, _now_ somebody starts to grasp the idea. This should be interesting." The Epitome now got into a fighting stance.

Tallon looked directly at his dad and made a downwards point with his little finger, and then swiped it side-to-side. Fox understood, and managed to sweep kick the Epitome, knocking it to the ground. Tallon let loose a jet of plasma, just as the Epitome of Water started out of the way.

"Ah, you've got a bit of my back," it turned to see part of its spine start bubbling away, "Not bad for your first try."

It then lashed out for Tallon who guarded his chest. Instead, the Epitome dug its blades into the floor, then kicked out its legs, knocking Tallon down.

"It's over. I've won again." it sighed. It swung its blade at Tallon's chest. He smiled and flipped over so that the blade dug into his plasma charge pack instead. A tremendous explosion ensued, extracting a scream from the Epitome as its fragile frame was superheated into nothingness.

Tallon, sore from the fact that he was smothered into the floor by the explosion, got to his feet. He smiled and asked, "So is everyone gonna lie there all day, or what? We've got a mission to complete."

Fox kicked himself up and patted his youngest son's back, "Now that's why I named you Tallon. Sharp as claws!"

_Finally,_ the brownish kitsune brooded, _some recognition._

"Alright, ugh," Adder got up with a grunt. "Let's get moving. C'mon, c'mon."

As they began the tedious, same-old process of blowing open sealed doors, Marcus passed by and winked, "Told ya so."

He replied with a yawn, "Yeah, just don't expect me to take care of another Epitome of Water if it shows up."

"…You're becoming more like Falco, aren't you?"

"Hey, I heard that!" Falco whined. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing at all," Marcus looked away.

"Wait a sec'," Tallon stopped walking. "Where did the voice of that Epitome of Shadow come from?"

"Huh?" Falco raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that. Well, I dunno."

"That's not surprising." Tallon rolled his eyes, "What if it was one of us?" His last question made everyone stop in the tracks.

"You know…" Krystal spoke in a worried tone, "you may be right about th-"

"No," Ace interrupted. "There's no way we can tell if it's actually one of us. For now, let's go on with the mission."

"But what if he's right?" Leon asked. "We can't risk that happening. And you heard the Epitome of Water- the humans wanted us alive. That means somebody's out there to capture us."

"Leon's right," Cris nodded in agreement, "but we don't know really know for sure that one of us is not who he or she is. How about we just keep a close eye on one another, and if someone does turn out to be the Epitome of Shadow, we blow his or her head off."

"What if it's you?" Brutus chuckled. "Aw, I'm just kidding! Don't look at me that way. Let's get going."

"Hold on a sec'," Wolf spoke sternly. "That Epitome of Water came from behind us! We left the bunker entrance open!"

"Um, duh!" Ace raised an eyebrow. "How else are we gonna flood this base?"

"Well, I'm just wondering if keeping the bunker window open will let the rest of the guys outside to…Oh."

Everybody then realized what was going to happen. Metallic footsteps could be heard behind them.

Tallon's ears flattened against his head and he cursed, "Aw, crap."

* * *

"Suspicion is starting to arise within the teams, sir. This may make the objective easier if someone else is blamed, but if another individual's death is caused by it, or I'm discovered, the mission could be compromised."

"I know."

"Yes, sir."

"And another thing- this is taking longer than I've hoped for. I want you to strike now."

"You've said it before, sir. We must act conservatively in order to make sure everyone is caught off-guard. If we-"

"I know what I said! Do _not_ use my own words against me! Just get this over with!"

"Understood, sir. Over and out."

"Those Epitomes are becoming more and more like the Spades…"

* * *

* * *

The second of chapter 12's three parts. Despite the loss of surface support, the PMCs manage to breach the seabottom siphoning facility. However...things are starting to work against them...such as the possibility of a traitor in their midst...

Anyways, another devious little creation of mine- the Epitome of Water. I tell you- the new stuff'll never end. Continue to enjoy, my readers! Continue!


	23. Chapter 12, Part 3: The Storm

Chapter 12, Part 3: The Storm

"Ugh," Tallon groaned, "this sucks. Shouldn't we get into defensive positions, or something?"

"We're still in a connecting corridor to the main section of the base," Ace scowled. "If you haven't noticed, we don't _have_ anything useful for cover around here!"

"So what're we gonna do?" Falco asked. "Are we just gonna sit here and let the enemy capture us?"

"Slippy," Adder began his long series of orders, "get on the floor and set up your gatling gun, pronto. Lay some heavy fire down the passageway, sweeping side to side. Marcus, Cris; pick off some of those guys, now!" Under the immediate firing from the two vulpines, he continued, "Brutus, get down and start firing, too. Try to get some directed energy beams in there when you can. Rest of you, start firing, now!"

Tallon immediately started firing into the hall behind them, as did everyone else. The three teams all fired in separate, staggered bursts, trying not to reload at the same time. The result was a hailstorm of bullets, lasers, plasma bolts, and occasional DE beams as well.

Some screams could be heard down the corridor, and the enemy soldiers returned fire as well. However, there were some sharpshooters back there, and they consecutively blew holes in everybody's weapons, making them completely useless. Only Brutus's chaingun was in good condition.

"Aw, shoot!" Ace whined. "Not only are we weaponless now, but those were some of my prototypes they trashed!"

"Quiet down!" Krystal screamed at Ace, then closed her eyes in concentration. After a few moments, she thrust her open palm down onto the ground, causing a wave of ice to rush out just as the first few Sentries and soldiers rushed into view. A few soldiers were impaled to death by the sharp ice crystals, and the rest of them were held off as the ice formed a thick wall between them and the three teams. "That should hold them off for a little while. Come on, let's get out of here!"

"Well, we can't do anything without any weapons!" Wolf complained. "And besides, I doubt we could find anything that could blow open the next pressure seal!"

Krystal sighed, then held out a hand. Several simultaneous screams and cracks went off from the other side of the ice as a total of fifteen (a few extra for some of them to dual-wield) weapons and ammunition pouches broke through the ice and floated before each member.

"I think that solves the problem," the vixen smiled, patching up the holes she made in the ice.

Tallon snatched the heavy carbine and ammo from the air, thinking _Sweet! _to himself. He cross-leveled the current clip, then dashed for the next pressure seal, which was just about thirty meters away.

As the rest of the soldiers caught up with him, he asked, "Sooooo…anyone got a grenade launcher or explosive?" Everyone shook their heads, and Tallon silently cursed to himself.

"I've got a better idea," Ace blurted out, then went to the side of the seal. He looked around for a few seconds, then noticed a small handle on the side, which he yanked downwards. A small keyboard and screen popped up, both of which instantly fried from the water. The albino then ripped off both devices and navigated a maze of wires.

"Okay, almost there…Ah, crap!" He suddenly cursed as an advanced DE beam melted the rest into steaming magma. Everyone looked behind them to see a mob of Sentries and soldiers making their way up to them. Apparently, the ice didn't help as much as they would've liked.

"So what now, genius?" Panther growled, firing backwards towards the incoming enemies.

"Simple," Ace answered, then aimed his new SMG at the wires and fired several times. Lucky for everyone, the door opened a bit, allowing everyone to slip inside before Ace came through last, delivering a harsh pound to the side of the seal, causing the doors to seal shut.

"Well, then," Slippy frowned. "How're we going to flood the facility now? There's barely…a centimeter of water in here?" Everyone looked down to see only a small amount of water collecting on the floor.

"We've opened the door for several seconds!" Leon exclaimed. "Why isn't there more?"

"Because I think we've reached the main section of the base," Fox turned around. Tallon pivoted on his foot and felt his jaw drop wide-open.

The new room they were in, which was a dull gray color, was easily the size of a large mall. There was a multitude of strange equipment of all sorts around them, ranging from computers to oxygen straining devices to weapon transfer systems. Around the room were strange columns in the shape of a double helix and all buzzed with electricity. This was only a small portion of the base, as a moving walkway loomed ahead at the end of the section, and an even larger complex could be seen in the distance. Unfortunately, there just happened to be an extremely large amount of scientists, Drones, armed guards, and Sentries in this area.

"You know," Brutus grimaced, "I think we were safer back there."

The scientists in the area immediately started running away as the armed enemies took aim at the new arrivals. Unlike in the connecting corridor, there was much more cover to be used around here, such as desks, low-lying walls, and some occasional cubicles.

Tallon leapt behind a desk, then kicked it over. Bullets started to pockmark the wooden frame, and he realized he needed better cover, and fast. Marcus saw his younger brother in need of assistance, and fired his rifle (not sniper rifle, just a plain old rifle) into the head of a soldier. As everybody else turned toward the fallen comrade, Tallon dashed from the desk and got into a cubicle just as a grenade landed right behind the desk.

A good-sized explosion ensued, turning fragments of the desk into shrapnel, which generally headed for Tallon. He crouched down to avoid the majority, but still got pelted by several large chunks of wood and metal. With an intense flash, his armor's shields shorted out.

"Oh, _now_ you decide to blow out on me!" Tallon rolled his eyes, and then began jogging in place to get his shields back up.

After about ten seconds, he decided it would be enough for now, then leaned around the corner of the cubicle's entry and aimed down the sight, concentrating his fire on a Drone. With bangs that could easily be considered as small explosions, the Drone's shields shimmered before bursting. A few more shots and the Drone dropped out of the sky and landed in the middle of a group of humans and Sentries. The explosion afterwards blew the humans into the air like ragdolls and sent Sentries skidding along the floor, recovering from the blast.

Tallon, to his utter disgust, found that the heavy carbine he had was left-handed, meaning that the ejected bullet cartridges hit his helmet. He didn't have anytime to brood over it any longer as a Tandem-Drone bashed its shield through the cubicle walls and into Tallon, knocking him down on the floor. The double mech then smashed its double particle beam cannon into Tallon while he was down, causing his shields to short out again, and extracting a grunt from him.

"Tallon!" he could hear his mother calling for him. Then, a wave of electrical sparks hit the legs of the Tandem-Drone, causing it to fall flat to the floor, its bottom half totally disabled. During this, Tallon skittered to his feet and got behind a planting pot (_Why the heck is a planting pot inside this sort of place?! _he thought) and recovered from the harsh blow he had received.

"See, Cris?" Krystal grinned. "All you need to do is destroy or disable the bottom portion, and the whole thing's down." However, the mech whirred back to life, and the top half severed itself from the bottom one. It then started flying around, causing myriad explosions with its particle beams, "Or...perhaps not." She then curled her hand into a fist, causing the mech to crush into a small metal sphere before exploding, "Go figure."

Tallon smiled, proud that he had such a talented mother, then peeked around the planting pot, searching for another target. His search was interrupted, however, because another grenade landed at his feet. This time, he seized the opportunity to retaliate. He picked up the hot potato and chucked it into the middle of a dug-in series of Sentries. The grenade detonated, turning the Sentries into large scraps of metal.

The young kitsune then resumed his search for a target and found one, a human that was barking orders to the rest of them. He took aim…just as the guy's head was blown apart into bloody fragments. Marcus got him. He then aimed at a Sentry that was getting dangerously close to Ace's position. Nope, Adder beat it down with the butt of his plasma rifle. He then aimed down the sight at a series of reinforcements…but Leon took them down with an extended burst from his light machine gun.

"Aw, c'mon, guys!" Tallon whined. "Stop stealing my kills!"

"Then start thinking faster, man!" Wolf chided back.

Tallon bit his lip, then looked up over the planter. He was instantly rewarded with a shot to the face, extracting a grunt from him as he fell backwards. He could already hear worried shouts from his friends and family as he got back up. Somewhat dazed, he shook his head a few times to see that the protective, heavy-duty transparency that served as his visor what lined with a multitude of cracks, with one huge hole about two inches from the upper-left corner. Now extremely worried, he ripped off his helmet and put his hand to his head. He then took a look at his hand; the glove was covered in blood.

"Holy cr-" he was about to utter the last word when another shot came, shedding more blood from his head. Tallon, his forehead screaming in pain, fell to the ground and couldn't find the strength to get back up. Before he blacked out, the last thing before he experienced tunnel vision was seeing everyone else fire all over the room, and Adder running over to him…

* * *

Tallon woke up with a start, and he snapped his head up with quite a bit of pain at the base of his neck. Sound rushed into his ears, making them pop a few times, and the world appeared out of focus before a few blinks. He could now make out several shapes. One was Adder kneeling beside him. The other few were his fellow family members.

"Sorry 'bout the sudden wake-up call, Tallon," Adder apologized, "I had to do something to get you awake."

"Wha-, but…" Tallon stammered, "I got shot two times in the head! Wh-why, no, how am I still alive?"

"I've seen some crazy cases of really good luck, but never like this," Marcus shook his head. "Both sniper rifle bullets that hit you a few minutes ago grazed the side of your skull, barely piercing into it. Bad news is, you're going to have to find a way to hold your breath if we ever get back into the water, 'cause that helmet is useless, now."

Tallon instinctively put a hand to his head. Though touching his wound made him groan from the pain, he could feel several bandages where he was shot, wet from the medical foam.

"Today seems to be your lucky day, Tallon," Fox grinned. "First you defeat the Epitome of Water, then barely avoid getting your head blown apart…You've _better_ consider yourself one of the luckiest soldiers alive."

"Not really," Tallon tried to stifle a chuckle. "Alright, we better get moving. This mission is far from over."

"Yeah, you're lucky," Ace walked over to him, covered in what appeared to be the splattered contents of a human's skull all over him, "I've got gray matter and whatnot all over me!"

"Uh," Cris mumbled, "synapses, right?"

"No, those are spaces between the brain that fire off nerve impulses. Didn't I tell you that before or something?."

"Oh…never mind, then." She saw Panther roll his eyes, and she leered at him. "I saw that!"

With that, Tallon pushed himself to his feet, and took a few deep breaths, taking everything in. He was alive, and he was happy about it. Mostly, anyways. After ensuring that he was up to the task, he followed the rest of the teams to the moving walkway.

The walkway transported the teams deeper into the base, and they eventually reached a dead end. The only thing at the end of the walkway was a gigantic floating platform suspended above a steep drop off.

"Whoa," Fox stared at into the abyss. "How far down does that thing go?"

"Well," Falco smiled, "There's an easy way to find out." With that, he gagged a little, removed his helmet, and then spat a large wad of saliva over the edge of the platform. The group waited for about twenty seconds before hearing a faint splatter while Falco replaced his helmet.

Adder whistled in amazement, "Jeez, that's far. Everyone be careful not to fall, or you're as good as dead. Now, can somebody get this platform moving?"

Slippy and Ace looked at each other, and Ace said, "Well, hey, I got us into the main part of the base!"

Slippy sighed, then conceded, "Fine, fine. I'll do it." The green frog went up to what appeared to be a control console, looked at the numerous buttons, keys, and switches on it, then pressed, clacked, and flipped away at a series of them.

"Okay, now," he cracked his knuckles. "This should get us to the siphoning chamber's entrance." He clacked a few more keys, then a holographic prompt popped up reading "Password_".

"Ooh," he frowned, "hacking has never been a strong point." Slippy looked at the control console, and then gave a harsh kick to the console box. 'The text was replaced by "Error Code: 25B:21. Forced entry confirmed. Please confirm the password or alarm will sound_".

"Uh, Ace? A little help would be nice!"

The albino shook his head and went up to the control console, then flipped open a cover to reveal a USB insertion point. He removed a USB flash drive from a pocket and jammed it in. The holographic text read "System crash immeninnnnntt_ _ Shuttttttttttt aun0vf8a09ru32058923wenp7159v!!!!" The text crackled and flickered before dissipating. Then, the platform lurched slightly, then started moving forward. Ace then removed the USB flash drive, twirled it a few times, and then blew on it, cowboy style.

"I never go anywhere without my personal computer worm delivery drive," he spoke as he pocketed the drive once more.

"I guess that's one way to do it," Wolf scratched the back of his head, then ordered, "Okay, everyone. Get in defensive positions around the platform! Blast anything in sight. And when I say that, I mean enemies, not anything else. I'm talking to you, Leon."

"Yeah, yeah," the chameleon glowered at his leader, "I know, I know."

Tallon, still disoriented from the recent head trauma, he hoped he would retain enough focus to finish the mission. In an effort to try to wake himself up, he twisted his torso, giving off several cracks from his spine. Somewhat more focused now, he shifted his attention to the area around the platform. All of a sudden, he heard a multitude of metal clanks coming from somewhere nearby.

"Guys," he raised his carbine, "do any of you hear something?"

"We hear it, alright," Brutus replied, "but where the heck is it coming from?" Slippy tapped the boa constrictor side (it was the highest he could reach), and he grumbled, "What?" The frog pointed down. "Oh. This can't be good."

Tallon turned back to the edge of the platform just as a juvenile Plague crawled from underneath and leapt onto his face. Cursing several times, he swatted it off with his carbine's barrel, then blew it to pieces with two shots. He turned back to the platform's edge to find that even more juvenile Plague were crawling from underneath.

"That's one way to get an effective security system," Ace spoke.

"Please," Krystal glared, "don't _ever_ compliment the enemy." She promptly waved her hand horizontally, causing the creatures to be swept off the platform and into the depths of the facility.

Tallon turned back to the next wave of incoming juveniles, and fire three more rounds…then found the clip to be empty.

_Crap! I forgot to reload!_ the vulpine thought. He scrambled to discard the empty clip, and reload a fresh magazine, when another Plague leapt on him, causing him to spill the rounds everywhere on the floor. Another juvenile leapt on him, then another, and another. Soon, five Plagues were grasping all over his body, and he struggled to fling them off, but to little effect. As he felt one of their sharp legs placing itself at the back of his head, a plasma bolt blew it off. A few more bolts followed, knocking off the rest. After this, Tallon found enough time to load another cartridge into his carbine, and killed off the rest of the juveniles around him.

Marcus went up to him and complained, "How many times to I have to do this in a single day?"

"You're too easily irritated," Tallon sighed and shook his head.

The brown kitsune resumed firing into the juveniles, which were thinning out at the moment. After Cris shot the last one off of the platform, she growled, "I _hate_ those little buggers."

"Wait," Panther narrowed his eyes. "If all these juveniles are here…then where's the adult?"

Tallon fell to the ground just as a humongous, spiny leg clambered onto the floor near him. Moments later, an adult Plague heaved itself on to the platform, which had barely enough room to accommodate it and everyone else.

"Will we _ever_ get a break?" Tallon asked no one in particular.

"Medium-sized platform with giant adult Plague? This is gonna hurt…," Slippy whined.

The Plague shrieked, then started swiping and slamming at the commandos. Tallon was scared out of his wits by the increasing number of close-calls with the beast's spiny legs, and tried firing at any time possible, but to no avail. Its armored hide was simply too thick to pierce.

"C'mon," Panther screamed. "We gotta get it to expose its synapses, er, nerve membranes or whatever!"

"Nerve membranes?" Ace cried. "When would synapses ever be revealed by any creature smart enough to hide them?" Just then, the monstrosity lunged at Marcus, who dodged the initial strike, but was knocked over the edge as the creature let loose a slimy mess of colossal brain tissues, "Uh, never mind."

"Oh, crap!" Tallon yelled. "Marcus!"

"Don't worry…," came his voice, "I'm fine…mostly." At this moment, Tallon looked over the ledge to see his brother holding onto the side of the platform for dear life with both hands, with one on his sniper rifle; "Uh, some assistance would be very nice sometime soon…."

"I gotcha, I gotcha," Tallon grasped his hands. "Now pull!"

As he tried to heave Marcus up, the Plague spotted him, and prepared to swipe at the fox. Fortunately, Tallon saw this and, with all of his strength, pulled Marcus back up, then pushed him flat on the ground before being sent flying himself. This time, Tallon was the one grasping to the edge.

"Well, this sucks," Tallon closed his eyes. "At least it can't get much worse now." Suddenly, he was splattered all over with a few gallons of blood. He blinked his eyes to clear them, then looked to see the Plague staggering on the platform…and was starting to careen for him, "Wonderful. They kill it, and it's going to fall over the platform, and probably onto me too. I hate my life."

Just as the dying experiment was about to fall onto him, Tallon dropped his carbine, used his powerful arms to swing the rest of his body underneath the platform, and curled his head as far forward as he could. With a horrible shriek, the Plague toppled over the side and into the black fissure. One spine scraped against his right arm, and the shields shorted out yet again. He could feel the pain receptors in his arm scream, and he lost the strength to hold on with it. Unfortunately, he was too heavy, due to the additional burden of his armor, and he plunged downwards as well…but a hand reached out and caught his arm.

With a sudden lurch, his descent stopped, and Tallon looked up to see Fox, clutching his arm with both hands. Still huffing from the adrenaline rush from the thought of death, he thought, _Oh, thank you, God. Thank you for sparing me once more._

"Is it just me," Fox grunted as he hoisted him up, "or have you gained some weight?"

"It's all muscle, 'k?" Tallon joked back, then pulled Fox's hands, causing him to end up on the floor, breathing heavily.

"Quite the lucky boy, eh young one?" Leon smiled.

"Hey, I'm eighteen. Don't call me 'boy' or 'young'."

"I don't know if you realize it," Wolf smirked, "but that was a compliment."

"Shut up," Leon turned his back to his superior, "I don't compliment anyone."

"Uh-huh. Riiiiight." Wolf rolled his eye.

After his breath reached a steady pace, Tallon looked at his right arm. A deep gash about half an inch in was on it, and was oozing blood with every heartbeat.

"Oh, jeez," Adder whispered harshly, then got out a bandage and some medical foam, "Hold on, I got it." The veteran removed his gauntlet, which then caused searing pain to emerge. Tallon bit his lip as Adder then squeezed a large amount of the large foam onto the wound, then spun a tape of bandages around the arm, and replaced the gauntlet.

"I didn't know you were a trained medic," Tallon commented.

"I'm a jack of all trades, my friend," Adder responded, "Don't be surprised. Well, don't just lie there all day! On your feet, Tallon!"

The young vulpine scrambled up, then asked, holding his arms out, "So how am I gonna kill anything? Punch and kick?" A pistol then flew straight at his head, and he was barely able to catch it in time, "Whoa!"

Cris raised an eyebrow, "You asked for it, didn'tcha?"

Tallon sighed before Krystal spoke, "Everyone? Look ahead, and mind your mouths."

Despite the vixen's fair warning, Tallon dropped his muzzle wide open. Towering in front of them was a bluish pillar of some sort that reached to the top of the base (which was extremely high), and was at least half a mile in diameter. Spiraling the pillar's height were two oscillating beams of the same color, but more intense.

"I think that's the siphoning mechanism," Ace guessed. "If it is, then it's sure gotten a lot bigger than the one at Katina."

"Wow, that's-" Brutus began, then dropped to the ground, making a downwards motion, and everyone else did the same.

"Why are we doing this?" Tallon queried. Brutus made a forward point, and Tallon leaned around the control console. He simply couldn't believe his eyes. There were three juggernaut tanks with super-powered DEB cannons, two Honor Guard mechs, and one Harvester defending the siphoning chamber.

"By the gods!" Cris exclaimed. "How the hell are we gonna get inside now?"

Wolf put a hand to his muzzle in thought, then perked his ears up, "Okay, I have a plan, but it's going to be extremely risky. It's probably going to be life-threatening, too."

"Well," Fox gazed upwards and shook his head, "what else is new?"

"We need a diversion," Wolf mused aloud, "And we need a good one... I need one- no- two people to serve as decoys. They'll draw those things' attention and fire away from the rest of us as we enter the chamber."

"You weren't kidding when you said 'life-threatening'," Leon scowled, "but, heck, I'll volunteer as one."

"No," Wolf objected. "In order to keep the loss of life as minimal as possible, I suggest using two of our fastest, most physically fit people here."

"You mean Tallon and Brutus?" Falco inquired. Everybody's gaze fell upon the two.

"What?!" Tallon screamed. "Why us? Why is it that we're always used as decoys?"

"Okay, I admit to using you two as decoys a few times back in the research station," Wolf growled, "but we must destroy this siphoning facility at all costs! We _all_ must be willing to sacrifice our lives for the Lylat System!"

"I have no objection," Brutus spoke.

"What?!" Tallon put a hand to his head, "Not you too! Ah, fine, fine! I'll do it!"

"Glad we got that settled, then," Wolf smiled weakly, "I'm sorry that you are the ones who have to do it, but it's going to have to be that way. Alright, Tallon and Brutus, here's what you're going to do. First things first, though, I want both of your shields to be at full power, so jog in place for a bit.

"Brutus, I want you to kick things off by firing some DE into the juggernaut tank on the far right. After that, Tallon, I want you to run in the same direction firing your magnum. While everyone is occupied, Brutus will fire again into the same tank while running opposite Tallon. If everything works fine, the enemy units will be occupied in a way that allows for the rest of us to slip through the center. Brutus, I want you to concentrate your fire onto that same juggernaut tank, and destroy it if possible. Tallon, see if you can take out those PMG nests on the other juggernauts… Okay, I think that's good. Brutus, Tallon; I think your shields are good enough."

Tallon stopped jogging, and panted slightly from fatigue. Wolf waited for about a minute to allow the two to rest, then asked, "Are you ready?"

The young kitsune gave a reluctant nod, and then turned to Brutus, who aimed at the pre-determined target as an answer. A small, continuous whine went off as the boa constrictor achieved lock onto the colossal tank.

Wolf raised a fist, then waited a bit. After seeing the Harvester shift its weight in boredom, he let the hand fall.

A shrill whistle went off as Brutus let loose a stream of oscillating DE, which struck the underside of the juggernaut tank- its main weakness. As the enemy units instinctively turned to the comrade tank, which skittered a bit, trying to regain balance, Tallon dashed into a sprint, firing his carbine at the other juggernaut tanks. Some of his shots extracted screams of pain as they connected with the turret operators.

Presuming that Tallon was their assailant, the enemies began raining fire down on him, making several close encounters as the vulpine chose random movements to keep them from getting a fix onto him. Unfortunately, he was still peppered by plasma rounds, which just so happened to be in a plentiful supply.

This was the moment when Brutus decided to fire again into the injured juggernaut tank, causing it to stagger to the side from the damage. The enemies were now extremely puzzled. Wasn't the fox down there the one who fired the beam? Apparently not, as Brutus started into his own sprint, chaingun blazing.

As the true aggressor sped into view, the enemies' attention shifted to him. Giving Tallon the opportunity to catch his breath, and fire off a few rounds into the PMG turrets, with each shot precise now that he could effectively aim.

Now caught between two targets, the enemy units divided into two groups to effectively engage the enemies, but not before Brutus fired a finishing blow to destroy the limping juggernaut tank, which collided into an Honor Guard mech. The ensuing explosion took both down in a yellowish orgy of flames. As the situation got even more chaotic, the rest of the group made a sprint for the chamber entrance. Krystal used her telepathic powers to force the doors open.

As everyone rushed inside, Wolf called out, "Come on, come on!" Hearing this Tallon and Brutus made haste for the open doorway…but the remaining Honor Guard mech struck Brutus a glancing blow, causing him to fly for several feet.

"Brutus!" Tallon cried. He fired a well-aimed shot into the left photoreceptor of the honor guard mech, causing it to stagger backwards. The vulpine ran over to Brutus, heaved his arm over his neck, and lifted him up.

While Tallon was gradually helping his brother in arms to safety, the rest of the teams provided covering fire, reducing a second juggernaut tank into rubble. After the two made it inside, Krystal made a clasping motion with her hands, causing the doors to slide shut.

After Tallon laid Brutus on his back, Adder ran up to him, "Brutus! Can you hear me?"

"Sure as ever, sir," was his reply.

Adder examined several places in his body, before coming to rest on his ribcage, "You might have a few cracked ribs, but other than that, nothing serious. It's gonna be alright."

"Bravo, soldiers of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf. Bravo."

Everyone wheeled around to see the rest of the siphoning chamber. It resembled the one on Katina- strange equipment, the glass bubble with the ferrous material of the mantle exposed, the weird mechanism draining the energy from it- everything was there, but on a much larger scale. The worst part was that standing in front of the mechanism, was none other than Iradanus.

"I'm surprised you were all able to make is this far. An impressive feat indeed." "Iradanus," Fox growled, "what are you this time? A hologram? An ersatz Hunter? What are you scheming now?

"Oh, I assure you that I…," the lord struck a computer next to him over, "am in the flesh."

"So first you fool us as the research station," Marcus narrowed his eyes, "and now you have the gall to come here yourself? We'll end this once and for all, you good for nothing son of a…what are you doing?"

Iradanus grinned, "So you noticed, eh?" He lifted out a small remote detonator, "I have a small explosive attached to the mechanism behind me. Do anything stupid, and you'll be once again running for your lives out of the place you hoped to invade and destroy."

"So?" Panther smiled. "We still have our reinforcements waiting outside, and a battleship ready to evacuate us."

"Is that so?" Iradanus' grin turned into a wicked smile. "Then you really _are_ the idiots we knew you would be. There are no reinforcements rushing toward this location. You know why? Because I've previously dispatched a Harvester to destroy it! And it should be here right…about…"

A low gasp turned into a horrendous roar as the left side of the chamber crumbled down, revealing the large head of the mech.

"And right on schedule, too," Iradanus glanced at a wristwatch. "I'm afraid you have no choice to surrender here and now. Epitomes! Come forth!"

A sloshing sound came from the air ducts overhead. Everyone aimed upwards as five large puddles of water oozed out from them. After splashing onto the ground, the puddles warped into Epitomes of Water of the same numbers.

"Check," Iradanus cracked his knuckles merely by flexing his fingers, "and mate."

"'Check and mate' yourself!" Adder yelled, then fired into Iradanus with his plasma rifle. The human leader merely lifted up his arm, causing an energy shield similar to the Hunter's from the research station.

"Too bad that was a stupid action on your part," Iradanus lowered his arm, shield still active. "And as promised," he clicked the remote detonator, "you will get your reward." The siphoning mechanism behind him exploded into myriad pieces. The resulting shrapnel and fireball didn't even make Iradanus twitch, "You have…" he checked his wristwatch again, "approximately twenty-five minutes before critical meltdown to find a way to escape from this facility…alive. No, no, stand down, Epitomes and Harvester. Let the prey run."

"Aw, crap," Fox cursed. "Let's get out of here!"

As Tallon and the others dashed from the chamber, Iradanus cackled, "Ha ha ha! If you really think you can run, then run! You'll all be consumed by the explosion and die! Even now, one of your trusted members is plotting your downfall at this exact moment! So flee, you worthless maggots, flee…"

The rest of the fickle leader's words were drowned into silence as the teams hurried onto the floating platform, which Krystal was able top get moving again using her telepathy.

"Come on, you stupid contraption!" the blue vixen huffed. "Move faster!"

"Considering the situation," Slippy spoke, "I think it's good enough."

"Jeez," Cris sighed deeply, "how is this happening all over again?"

Tallon remained quiet throughout the exchanging conversations, then interrupted, "Everyone? Do any of you understand the enormity of what Iradanus last said?"

"That we have less than twenty-five minutes to escape?" Marcus asked. "Which I have no clue how?"

"No, no," Tallon shook his head, "after that!"

"Huh?" Falco gave him a quizzical look. "Whadda ya mean? I was a bit busy running for my life to pay attention."

"He said that one of us is plotting the downfall of the rest," Tallon answered, "That means-"

"I guess that situation has come true," Adder narrowed his slit-like eyes. "We have an Epitome of Shadow in our midst."

As the platform came to a stop against the side they came from, Tallon was the first to dash off. He then took aim at the opening mechanism for the door they came through and fired three slugs into it.

"Tallon!" Leon half-shrieked. "What the hell are you doing?! Now we can't get out!"

"One of you is not who you seem to be," Tallon spoke sternly, "And I'm gonna find out who!" He reached for the nozzle for his plasma vapor thrower…then realized he only had the nozzle, as the connecting hose was slit at the end, "What the…why the heck do I still have this?" He chucked the nozzle away in embarrassment.

"Ignoring that," Panther turned to everyone else, "I agree we should at least try to uncover the imposter. Besides, those enemies from earlier are probably waiting outside, so it won't really make a difference."

"Fine," Krystal huffed, "but I'm not gonna be the one opening it! Getting that stupid platform back here was tiring enough!"

"Anyways," Fox spoke, "we need to find out the ones who are most likely the Epitome. It's probably not Krystal; an Epitome can't really do all that telepathy she can."

"I agree, but it could easily be you," Cris looked at the leader as if she were being harassed, "You and any other team leader here could be it, for obvious reasons. Except for Adder…of course…"

"Or," Wolf flashed his eye at Cris, "it could be you or loverboy over there. You two seem to have had the most contact with Epitomes of Shadow back on the research station."

"What?" Cris glared back. "How could it be me? I could understand it being Panther, but-"

"Quiet, quiet," Ace hushed everyone. "We need to do this in an orderly and civilized manner. We can't afford any mistakes this time. Besides, we have about twenty-two minutes left."

"It might be you," Marcus hypothesized. "The other Epitomes of Shadow we encountered have quite the childish attitude. It would be easy for one to imitate you."

"Oh, really?" Ace forgot what he just said and stood right in front of the vulpine. "_I _was the one who made the plan to destroy this facility in the first place! _I_ was the one that made new weapons for a select few of you guys here!"

"And how do we know you aren't just doing it to lower suspicion?"

"Well…uh…What about Xamuros or Aloysius?" Ace changed the subject. "They aren't with us now, and they could easily have hid among us, faking that he was repelled by the shield!"

"I highly doubt that," Slippy disagreed. "They looked convincing to me."

"That's the point!" Ace argued. "For a genius, you sure don't seem like one! It could be you!"

"Me?" Slippy leered at the albino. "It's most likely you!"

Soon enough, the whole group was arguing over who the Epitome was mimicking. Tallon, however, backed out of the argument he started. He couldn't stand to see everyone fighting like this. Sure, he was the spark that set the flames of debate off, but, like Fox said, he lacked commitment.

Everyone stopped talking as a deep rumble went off. Then, they realized that the rumble was actually a dark laugh. The commandos aimed their weapons in different directions, searching for the source.

"This…is quite amusing…Everyone is fighting…over who I am…," The voice resumed its laugh, which turned into a cackle of a higher pitch.

Everyone could definitely tell that this Epitome was different. The voice was much darker than the others they had encountered, and it produced a sort of sensation that caused a cool ball of terror to form in everyone's stomach.

It resumed its dark taunt, "Even if you…find out who I am…no gain will come from it…Your goal to protect the Lylat System- your endeavor…will not succeed…you…will all…perish." Tallon couldn't help himself anymore.

"Where are you?!" he screamed. "Show yourself, coward!"

"If boredom persists…maybe…but until then…I'll just play it safe…until that time."

"Alright, people," Adder spoke after a few moments. "We need to work faster. We are running out of time, and the only lead we have is that everyone is a good candidate except Krystal…but…then again, the Epitome of Shadow is a master of illusion, so all of that could be…"

"So you're saying," Krystal still panted from fatigue. "That it's me? That all you just saw me do was nothing but a fake? An act?"

"I'm not saying that! It's just that…well, no one can really be sure."

"I'm getting bored…of this happening…all over again…," the Epitome rasped. "I'll give you a hint…he's a fox."

"Alright," Wolf smiled. "We now know that it's a fox, and that it's a male. That did some work for us. It's either Fox or Marcus."

"What about him?" Brutus asked, motioning towards Tallon. "He's a fox, too."

"I doubt it. I don't really think an Epitome would want to be him."

Tallon sighed in relief. At least he wasn't accused…or at least just yet. He suddenly, yelled, "Hey! Whadda ya mean by that?"

"Nothing, nothing. Now, Marcus and Fox, do me a favor and step a bit backward. No, further, further…good! Now a bit to the left…aaand…stop!"

"Okay, why are we doing this?" Marcus held out his arms.

"To smoke the rat out," Wolf tilted his head sideways, "or rather…," he snatched a grenade from his belt, "flash him out. Now everybody- ugh!"

The lupine staggered before falling to the ground. Everybody rushed around him to see the back of his helmet cracked, though there was no blood. The poor guy was knocked out cold. Everybody looked to see Tallon, standing a couple of feet back, the stock of his carbine raised.

"Tallon, why'd you do that?" Fox screamed.

"…He had no shadow of his own," was his reply.

The teams looked back to the unconscious body. Brutus heaved him up…and sure enough…there was no shadow.

"Tallon…how'd you know?" Krystal asked.

"I didn't," Tallon then smiled wickedly, "You all just believe everything you see or hear, is all…hehehehehe!" Wolf's limp body suddenly formed a shadow. "He's not exactly…a Fox! Hah-hah-hah!"

"What?" Falco stepped back. "But, why are…ohhhh, crap."

"Crap indeed," Tallon's body then warped out of proportion until it finally gave the visage of the Epitome of Shadow. This entity was different, however. While it did have the same, twisted bodily proportions, there were several places on its body- mainly its chest and legs- that didn't have any flesh at all. In their place were the bones that were underneath. The face was also changed- though the mouth was still in its abnormal place, it was much larger, and had yellow, rotten teeth.

Adder was the first to react, reaching for the flash grenade Wolf dropped while he fell. Unfortunately, it was enveloped in a dark shroud, and was split apart.

"I'm afraid I can't…allow that," the Epitome spoke as if every syllable was a gasp for air, "nor for…anyone else…"

Similar shrouds surrounded the flash grenades on several of the soldiers' belts, sending pieces of the useless grenades everywhere.

"Everyone!" Cris shouted. "Guard your shadows! It can't harm you if it can't get to them!"

"A wise decision…" it dropped to all fours to the ground, "but…what if you…couldn't see them?" A wave of darkness stretched across the entire room, and split into four separate parts. These parts acted as if they were predators of light- they danced across the room, smothering out all sources of light. After a matter of seconds, the only light radiating was from the helmets' HUD's, which cast eerie glows around the room.

"This…is the part…where I start taking people down…," the Epitome's voice sounded from the left. Krystal formed a small fireball with her unused fist, creating a bit of light. However, the Epitome emerged from the darkness and struck her in the face. Bits of shattered glass scattered everywhere as the knockout blow did its job.

The rest of the group started firing into the Epitome, which merged into the shadows before they contacted against it. Next to go was Marcus- the Epitome appeared below him and gave him a harsh blow to the jaw, knocking him both skyward _and_ unconscious.

Adder, Cris, Panther, and Leon realized this was a hopeless battle, and sprinted for the door. Occupied with everyone else, the Epitome of Shadow hissed, "Tarkov…now!"

A shock trooper dropped from the ceiling, landing neatly beside the Epitome. He looked at the fleeing Lylatians, then spoke, "Got some runners, eh? Give me…twenty seconds." The shock trooper zoomed for the group trying to escape at breakneck (or, at least breakneck for a regular human) speed. He caught up with the group in less than two seconds.

Deciding against using his claw gauntlets, Tarkov leaped through the air and onto Adder's shoulders, perfectly balanced. While Adder was trying to shoot the shock trooper off, the biogenetically-altered human swung his arms at Leon and Panther, knocking both out with one blow to the forehead each. The shock trooper then swung both of his fists into the back of the serpent's head while simultaneously performing a backflip. Cris was last.

"Remember me?" the shock trooper pointed to the left lens of his helmet.

"Oh, crap, crap, crap!" Cris tried running in the opposite direction. Tarkov was obviously faster, and he quickly ran her down, then gave her a good whack to the head.

"How long did that take?" the shock trooper asked. The Epitome of Shadow leapt out from behind Slippy and gave him a forceful downward punch, knocking the frog into the floor.

While exposed, the Epitome replied, "Ten-and-a-half seconds. Why twenty?"

"I thought they'd put up a better fight. Too bad they didn't."

Even though he spoke to the shock trooper for a few seconds, the Epitome noticed that everyone else was running for the platform.

"_Everyone _is…running away…now!" the Epitome rasped angrily, "Zentax… Incoming!"

The gray goliath that was a Hunter materialized from the darkness. He activated his energy shield, lighting up the darkness with its circular form, then heaved up the drill in his other arm in preparation for an attack.

Zentax bashed the energy shield into Brutus, knocking him down, and then kicked him in the head with one of his four, massive legs. He then swung his drill at Falco as lightly as he could afford…which still sent him all the way through a cubicle.

Fox and Ace- the remaining two- fired into the Hunter. Zentax brought the shield up, blocking the projectiles and energy, sending ripples throughout the shield where they hit. He then activated his invisibility veil, confusing the two. While they were searching, the Hunter came from the side and tackled both of them down, and then knocked Fox out with a hard blow with his shield, then Ace with his upper-right leg.

Zentax paused for a moment, and then asked, "Is that everyone?"

"Let's see," the Epitome counted, "Two by the Harvester… two by me… four by Tarkov, and four by you….That's all of them."

"Isn't there thirteen of them?"

"You Hunters really are stupid," Tarkov put a hand to his helmet. "We already _captured_ the boy! Two weeks back, remember?"

"Hey!" Zentax growled. "It's not _my_ fault that the genetic alteration decreased the number of brain cells Hunters have after it!"

"Will you two…just shut up?!" the Epitome howl-shrieked to silence the bickering duo, then raised itself to its full height- about four meters. "It's been bad enough that I had to study the exact knowledge, personality, and habits of that boy for seven hours, and then pantomime him as best I could! Now you two are fighting again! I'm contacting Iradanus now, so shut up!"

"That won't be necessary."

The trio turned to see none other than the human dictator himself. Tarkov and Zentax immediately bowed to their superior, but the Epitome of Shadow stood firm.

"Sir," it reported, "we have all of the Lylatians and that Xamuros ready for transportation. I'm sorry about the delays."

"First of all," Iradanus shot him an angry glance, "you _will_ bow in my direct presence until I permit you to rise. Second, you _will_ address me as 'my lord', not 'sir'. That is a title reserved for lower military personnel. And finally, it's about time that you all got them! I've lost several dozen good men, about a dozen Sentries, four Drones, two juggernaut tanks, and this facility as well! If all this trouble I've gone through doesn't pay off, there's going to be some problems!"

"I apologize, s- uh, my lord," the Epitome of Shadow bowed down, "I understand now, my lord."

"That's much better. Rise." Iradanus cracked a thin smile. "Now, do me a favor and gather these unconscious bodies. I have a transport ready."

"But, my lord," Tarkov blurted out. "What of the rest of the soldiers?"

Iradanus paused, then sighed, "My people may consider me a dictator, but I'll not lie. I've managed to evacuate as many as possible. Still, there will be some that won't be able to make it out. But we should leave as well. Get moving."

* * *

Iradanus stepped into his new, albeit smaller office, and threw off his coat. He fell into the swivel chair, and let out a big sigh. Today, the United Earth Army had lost many men, and all for the capture of twelve commandos-for-hire and one Spade.

These thoughts were buzzing around in his head like angry wasps when his desk phone chimed a few times. Iradanus sighed again and picked it up, "Lord Iradanus, and this better be good."

"Uh, it isn't my lord."

"I'd know that voice anywhere," Iradanus answered. "Doctor Richard Oxan. You are aware that I'm still upset about your project's failure, and I'm definitely not in the mood for any more bad news after loosing the Aquas facility."

"Oh…I understand, my lord. Perhaps I should…just call later."

"Is it of the utmost importance?"

"Y-yes, my lord. It involves our objective."

"Then speak."

"I know th-that…that you're not going to like it, my lord," Oxan stammered, "but…at the rate that the Lylatians are destroying our siphoning facilities, I don't think we'll be able to drain all of it. We've lost the first and second Katina bases, the Aquas facility, and the one on Corneria that was just recently destroyed by the Cornerian Army Corps in tandem with the Spades. My lord…we're exhausting our army. The men are growing weary, and at the rate they're dying…we may have to get recruits that haven't had any training of the moment. I suggest that we begin the initial phase of…the construction."

Iradanus was just about ready to slam the phone down onto the desk, put mention of the construction made him stop, "The...construction? Of the Gargantuans?"

"Yes, my lord, I-I advise that we begin construction immediately," When Iradanus remained silent for a long time, Oxan asked, "My lord, are you there? My lord?"

"I'm still here, Oxan. As the lord of United Earth…I grant you permission to begin the construction. I will order the siphoning facility faculty members to begin firing planetary energy at the shipyard immediately."

"I understand, my lord."

"How many will there be?"

"At the rate we are draining energy, my lord…possibly seven of them."

"Let's hope that's the lucky number then. And Oxan…"

"Yes, my lord?"

Iradanus spoke his next sentence slowly, "Do not fail me again."

"N-never, my lord. Oxan, over and out."

The resonating tone of the cut call relayed through the receiver, and Iradanus put the phone gently down on his desk. So this was it now. _They_ had instructed the humans to siphon all the energy from a system's planets, if possible. If unable to drain all of it, then they would take as much as possible, and then destroy all evidence.

Ever since he rose to power, Iradanus had only seen the power of the Gargantuans used a total of two times. The first time, he was horrified by their sheer power of four of the monstrosities. The second time, there was one less, due to complications. This time, however, they would have almost double the amount of Gargantuans for the task.

Iradanus slumped a little lower in his chair. He would not feel sorry for these Lylatians. Every other race was inferior…well, except for _them_. This time, he would make sure that the Lylatians would pay. But at the moment…there were plans to be put into motion.

* * *

* * *

The conclusion of chapter 12. Yes, I know I broke some rules in order to get the reader to actually believe that was "Tallon" relating most of the chapter. But it sure worked in surprising you, right?

...Right?

...You guys _were_ surprised, right?

Oh, never mind. Anyways, our beloved heroes have been captured! Scream and run around in circles!

...Or stick around and continue to read and review...Preferably the latter...


	24. Chapter 13: Breaking Point, Part 1: Myst

Chapter 13: Breaking Point, Part 1: Mysterious Forces

February 19, 2362

0814 hours

POW/Re-education Camp 0317

A dark curtain was draped over his mind. Nothing seemed to reach him from the world. He couldn't feel anything, he couldn't see anything, and he couldn't move anything. Suddenly, a small dot of light was visible, and the drapes were thrown wide open…

"Hey! Hey!"

Fox opened his eyes and looked up to see two human soldier standing over him, a sub-machine gun strapped to one's back, and a holstered pistol with the other. Both were wearing a standard combat suit, complete with a flak jacket, helmet, and polarized goggles; they each bore an expression of the utmost distaste.

The orange vulpine looked around to see that he was in a small, cramped cell. Brick walls surrounded him from all sides, and were covered in mildew and blood. A lone light bulb that dangled from a long electric wire provided the only source of light in the cell. Faulty pipes caused water to drip onto the floor, which he now noticed was composed of a muddy soil. The kitsune then looked down at himself. His arms were cuffed behind his waist, his ankles were chained together, and he was stripped down to his undershirt, boxers, socks, and boots. He was sore all over and in heavy fatigue.

The leader assessed the situation. He was obviously captured by the humans after being deceived by that Epitome of Shadow. He was in a prison of some sort in an unknown location. His friends and family were most likely in the same prison, and they were probably just as tired and hungry as him. After contemplating over these facts, he decided that escape was probably useless…at least at the moment.

"Well, it's about time you're awake!" the human that called to him earlier complained. "You damn Lylatians sleep so deep, you wouldn't know if someone crapped on you!"

"Shut up, man," the other soldier beside him chattered. "You know you can't cuss. And stop acting like you're gangsta or something."

"Hey, you shut up, 'k?" the first soldier shot back. "He's awake now, so let's get him over to that freakin' hayseed."

As the two humans seized Fox's arms, lifted him up, and then started walking him through the dark, damp hallways, the second soldier spoke in a grim tone, "You know that Lord Iradanus would have you punished if he knew you talked 'bout him like that."

"So?" was the other's reply. "I've already gotten twelve whippings in the past few weeks. I can barely feel my back anymore!"

"There's always the Chainlink."

"You mean the one that Tommy…Aw, Christ."

"I keep on telling you- shut the hell up!"

This time, the first soldier remained silent, and for a good, long time. In the meantime, Fox tried to distinguish any possible means of escape. So far, he noticed none. Not even a window in sight. However, he did see several large air ducts and ventilators. Through this, he believed that they were probably underground for some distance- not a pleasant thing. Or they could be in space- even worse. That would mean that there would be few routes for escape.

Still, Fox remained silent as he tried to locate any landmarks in case he should escape. Nothing seemed to shout out to him. Just dimly lit, moist hallways and occasional humans. There weren't any exit signs of any sort; the humans must have made it so to discourage escape. However, he and his escorts did pass by some other cells. Even though they weren't any of his friends or family, there were Lylatians in every one of them. His heart fell when he saw that they were groaning in pain. Some had many cuts and bruises. Others were so starved that each of their individual ribs could be counted.

"Like what you're seeing, huh?" the first soldier joked sadistically. "Hey, Mitch! Let's take him to the feeding pen. I wanna scare the hell out of him!"

"Hm…," Mitch shrugged. "Well, I love seeing the looks on the faces of new arrivals when they see it. Alright, let's show him. _But_…we take him to the Lord directly after, understood?"

"Okay, okay, let's just show him, already!"

Instead of walking in pace with him, the humans now sort of dragged Fox along. They winded through a series of T-junctions and stairwells until coming to an area that looked sturdier and brightly lit. In fact, the comparatively brighter light dazed him for a few seconds. Blinking a few times, the leader of Star Fox could distinctly make out a section of the prison that looked like it was brand new. The floor and walls were now made of concrete, which was polished to the extent of giving off its own sheen. The prison cells the passed now looked more high-tech, with laser bars instead of metal ones. The captives inside them, however, looked much, much worse than the ones before. No one in this section was without scars. A few, he noticed, were missing one or more fingers or toes. As they passed a lone cell, a Doberman inside had lost an ear.

Fox forced himself to look forward, when the first soldier breathed into his ear, "Gruesome, huh? Well, you ain't see anything yet!"

The three eventually came to a sealed door, with a guard to the side of it. He ordered, "Halt! What's your busi-…So that's the McCloud, person, eh? Is he a new arrival, too, Brooks?"

"Yep!" the soldier known as Brooks answered. "Freshly caught!"

The guard laughed, and then nodded, "Okay, okay, you can pass." He turned to the door and opened a panel, "New arrival. Let's break him in." The human on the other side of the door unlocked it and it opened wide.

The soldiers shoved him into some sort of viewing area. The area itself was of an ovular shape, with the outer edge composed of stainless steel, while the inner edge was glass. Visible down below, however, was a small clearing. What was _in_ the clearing, however, caught Fox's attention.

Two enormous beasts the size of sedans stood in the clearing. Each had two sinewy, scaly legs as thick as tree trunks. These bipedal creatures' backs were formed in a horizontal line, since it couldn't hold itself all the way upright…due to the fact that it had toothy, drooling maws the size of Fox himself. The head attached to this maw (literally attached, since the jaws made up most of its head) had a single, yellow, and pupil-devoid eye the size of a car's headlight and a curved horn about the same size as a meat cleaver. A long, dinosaur-like, and plated tail looped through the air from each of the foul entities, swaying side-to-side in anticipation. There were no arms of any sort to speak of.

"This is the good part," Brooks smiled, then locked Fox's head so that he was looking directly down into the clearing.

A series of clanks sounded off as a gate rose on the opposite side of the clearing, causing both of the monsters to face the other direction. A young avian was pushed into the clearing, and the gate closed behind him.

He instantly threw himself upon it, banging and pleading, "Please! Please, no! Don't let me die here! No, no, no!"

The wretched beings heard the avian's cries for mercy, and they advanced toward him. His banging and beseeching became more and more frantic as they got closer and closer. Finally, he ran along the edge of the open space, trying to get around the things.

His efforts were in vain as the two creatures let out a bloodthirsty shriek, and then dropped low to the ground as they dashed for the unfortunate bird. The bird was able to outrun them to the other side of the area, but then realized that he was now boxed into the corner. The avian then kneeled down and started praying in his final effort for salvation. He was granted it, but not exactly in the way he would've wanted.

The left beast pounced onto the avian, slamming him into the ground. It then opened its maw and took out a frightening amount of flesh from the Lylatian, causing him to let out a bloodcurdling scream. The second monstrosity joined the feast, causing the screams to become even louder. Flesh, insides, and bone were ripped from the unpropitious soul as the screaming lowered in pitch, becoming groans. Finally, the groans of the comrade being eaten alive eventually stopped altogether. The avian was dead.

As the predators fed upon the carcass, Mitch spoke, "Epsilonian raptors. Beauties, aren't they?"

"You humans…," Fox finally uttered the first words of the day, "have sick…twisted…minds…"

"Y'know what?" Brooks hissed into his ear. "I have half a mind to strike you down here and now, but you just happen to be wanted alive by our Lord."

"So be it," Fox calmly replied. "My opinions don't change."

Brooks was silent for a few moments, an expression of anger on his face, then spoke, "Let's deliver this inferior being, already, Mitch. The sooner we get rid of him, the better."

With that, the two soldiers started dragging the kitsune deeper into the facility. As they did, Fox noticed that security had increased dramatically. They passed several checkpoints, each with a pressure-sealed door and two Sentries. More and more guards were posted throughout the hallways as they passed on. Finally, the three reached a gigantic arched doorway with two Honor Guard mechs flanking the sides.

After a few seconds passed, Brooks elbowed Mitch and said, "We're supposed to state our purpose and identities, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," the soldier replied, then yelled to the machines. "Honor Guard mechs, we're here to deliver the Lylatian, Fox McCloud, to Lord Iradanus! We desire entrance into his office! We are Michael Brooks and Mitchell Emerson!"

One mech bent over in front of Mitch and scanned his retinas and facial features, then did the same for Brooks. After resuming its original position, it nodded to the other mech. Together, the two mechs used the tips of their massive axes to open the monstrous doors, and the humans ushered Fox inside.

The trio entered a spacious room that was nothing more than an enlarged office. A modest, wooden, semicircular desk was located in the center of the room, with none other than the human dictator sitting in a leather swivel chair. The rest of the team members of Star Serpent, Star Wolf, his friends and family of Star Fox (minus Tallon), and Xamuros were seated in cheap-looking metal chairs, chained and cuffed much like Fox was.

The vulpine was shoved into a chair, and the humans were about to exit when Iradanus spoke, "Michael Brooks, I do not tolerate such rude behavior within the United Earth Military Forces."

Both humans stopped in their tracks, and the one addressed turned to Iradanus and stammered, "B-but, how did-"

"I have eyes everywhere, soldier," the lord answered. "Seize him." A Sentry, previously unnoticed, came from behind Brooks and grabbed hold of him with its myriad appendages, "This isn't the first time I had to put up with your impudent behavior. This is the thirteenth incident, if my memory serves well. And I know how much you _adore_ the Chainlink. Sentry, hook him up to it. When I give you the word, I want you to start it up. Do not release him until at least two of his limbs have been removed from their sockets. Leave." The Sentry dragged away an exasperated, screaming Brooks, as Mitch watched silently. He, too, left afterwards.

_I rest my case, _Fox thought. _Sick, twisted minds._

[_I agree,_] came the soothing voice of his wife.

_Krystal! Are you alright?_ Fox replied in his mind._ Have they done anything to you or anyone else?_

[_Not that I know of. As far as I can tell, we've been treated relatively well. The only exception is Tallon. I have no clue where he is._]

Iradanus made Fox shift his attention when he coughed, then began, "Welcome, Lylatians, to POW/Re-education Camp three-seventeen. I trust you all enjoyed your stay so far?" No one answered, "You Lylatians aren't the humorous types, aren't you? Well, I will start off with some kindness. Sentries, release them from their shackles and cuffs." Sentries fluttered around the group as they freed the soldiers of their chains and handcuffs. Fox rubbed his sore wrists and cracked his ankles. Iradanus, as if reading everybody's minds, continued; "Don't try anything stupid or irrational. There are two Honor Guard mechs posted outside, eleven Sentries in here, and six invisible Hunters waiting for you to make your move. Let's see…five…eight…twelve… fifteen…Oh, yes, we're missing someone. Allow the boy to enter."

The massive door behind everyone opened, causing everyone to turn around. Two humans were dragging in a brown-furred kitsune- whom they dropped onto the floor, then left. Fox remained in a silent fury as he laid his eyes on his son. He was obviously malnourished; his ribs were starting to show, and his previously eye-catching muscles had diminished significantly. Fox and Krystal ran up to Tallon and embraced him.

"Tallon," Krystal cried. "Thank goodness you're alive!"

"I-I," Tallon stammered, obviously fatigued, "I'm sorry… I…was careless, mom…dad… I should have noticed the Epitome of Shadow coming."

"Son," Fox whispered, "it's alright."

"N-no," the vulpine shook his head sheepishly, "i-it's my fault…that everyone got…cap-"

"Tallon," Fox interrupted, then repeated, "_it's alright._ It's not your fault at all. No one can blame you."

"B-but…"

"Stop talking," Krystal halted him. "What's done is done. No one is at fault…but him." She turned towards Iradanus with flashing eyes.

"Oh, dear me," Iradanus feigned fright out of sarcasm, "I'm _so_ afraid! You can use various forms of telepathy, correct? I doubt can at the moment."

"You little…" Krystal bared her teeth, "DIE!" She lashed her hand forward…but instead of a brilliant jet of flame rushing out, only a few ashes and embers came forth. The only thing she could do was widen her eyes in surprise.

"See what I mean?" Iradanus chuckled, "You are too weak and weary to perform any threatening forms of telepathy. Even if you did, you've still been drugged," He stood up and clapped his hands a few times to catch everyone's attention, "Alright, family-and-friend-time is over. There are more important matters to attend to…such as the state of the Lylat System.

"At the moment, all of your planets and their moons have at least one siphoning facility on them, or at the very least, _had_ a facility on them," Iradanus narrowed his eyes slightly with the last remark. "At the moment, we have drained much of the system's planetary energy, and most of your homeworlds are shadows of what they used to be. If not for your surprising competence with us, we would have already won this war and you would all be dust in space," He began to pace back and forth. "However, that is not the case, and I must congratulate you Lylatians for holding us off this long. Quite the feat, though it will not matter in the end.

"Now for the next matter on hand…your technology. I must admit, you Lylatians are almost on par with us humans with research and development, as with reverse engineering some of our weapons as well. However…there is something I've particularly been attracted to…Abyss!" The same Epitome of Shadow that had impersonated Tallon materialized from the darkness and handed a rolled up sheet of paper to the lord, "This is what I've been talking about," He unrolled the sheet, revealing a blueprint…of Ace's antimatter cannon. The albino could only cringe, "I hope you don't mind if we use this blueprint for ourselves," He handed the sheet back to Abyss. "You can give that to R&D when you can. Then return to your post," The Epitome of Shadow merged with the darkness once more after a hasty bow.

Iradanus continued, "Now to the most important part. You are all aware of the siphoning of your planets, correct? Now, you don't know that much about planetary energy, do you? Well, you know that without it, the planet that once contained the energy will become uninhabitable, but is there anything else? …I didn't think so. Siphoned planetary energy has powerful characteristics. Virtually unrivaled power, namely… And I can share this incredible power with you Lylatians. All you need to do…," Iradanus stopped pacing and faced them, "…is pledge your undivided loyalty to us humans."

"And what makes you think that we'll do that?" Xamuros fumed. "You humans are nothing but superfluous discriminators! You seek to put all other intelligent life-forms beneath you just because they ridiculed your kind! For what reason should we ever side with you?"

"Such hateful words from someone who used to be human himself," Iradanus shook his head. "Still your tongue, figuratively of course, and I'll show you someone who is the living example for the power of planetary energy…well, sort of living, anyways. You may enter."

The door behind them opened once more, and this time, a Lylatian entered the room. He was a white-furred simian wearing red body armor with a yellow neck area and had silver shoulder plates and a belt of the same color. Contrasting with this military-esque appearance was the fact that he was wearing yellow trousers and red sneakers with yellow laces. His head was much taller than it was wide, and other than facial features not unlike a human's, had eyes that, instead of irises, retinas, pupils, and the like; had a ghostly, whitish glow instead. Fox stared at the simian as he walked past the group, and then realized just who he was.

Adder now had an expression of great surprise, which transmuted into one of pure anger, "Youuuu…"

"Oh, you've _got _to be kidding me," Fox gaped. "There's absolutely no way! You're supposed to be dead!"

"I'm afraid there's a way, Lylatian," Iradanus grinned. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Mr. Andrew Oikonny."

"Thank you so much for the introduction, my lord," Oikonny chuckled in his originally high-pitched voice, though it sounded slightly distorted. "It's a pleasure to be here again."

"You little…," Adder growled, then leapt at the ape with surprising agility. Unfortunately, two Hunters materialized on both of his sides and grabbed him by the arms, "Argh! Let go of me! Go to blazes, Oikonny! You have the idiocy to betray your own kind?! You're nothing more than a sonuva-" He was interrupted as the Hunters let go of the serpent…and Oikonny gave him a harsh kick to the chest. The snake was sent across the office back into the door from which he entered, leaving a slight impression on it after he landed. Fox stared wide-eyed in surprise.

"Like I've said previously," Iradanus sighed, "there _are_ some Hunters waiting for you to make a wrong move. Back to brass tacks, Oikonny here is a living example of the power of planetary energy. Not only has it given him a new life, but enhanced physical strength as well. I'm sure your friend noticed (Adder gave a stoic grunt in response). Andrew was kind enough to pledge his loyalty to me in return for reinvigorating him, quite literally. Through him, we humans now have information on the strengths and weaknesses of the Lylatian army, the terrain of the planets, and much, much more. You see how much we can offer you Lylatians if you cooperate with us? I can grant each and every one of you your innermost desires!" Iradanus began walking towards each of the soldiers.

"Xamuros, while you may have betrayed us, you can still be welcomed back into our side with open arms. We can give you the freedom and civil rights you and the rest of the Spades yearn for! And with planetary energy on your side, you can become the most powerful soldier in the universe! You will receive the utmost respect from everyone you meet!"

Iradanus continued his walk, "Aloysius Sylva, correct? I know much about you- you and your losses. You are a stranger amongst your own kind. You are shunned simply because you have lost your body and are forced to live in that horrendous armor. You have few friends, and the only thing you are remembered for is your raw power. But…what if I gave you back your body? Yes, I can give it back, as well as new power that will make your current level shrivel in comparison!

"Falco, you are a lover of the sky. Perfectly natural for an avian. If you fight for the humans, we can use planetary energy to forge perfect materials for your dream starfighter. After that, we can grant you total command over the United Earth Air Force! You will be unrivaled in the skies and beyond!

"Brutus, Kinsley…you fight for the sake of a world where no serpent will receive discrimination. I can obviously grant you that, and I can make grant each snake power that will indeed rival that of God!

"Wolf O'Donnell, I assume. You've lost much as a child- your home, your lifestyle…Well, forget those! You crave for power, and you know it- power that will get you into the pages of history for all eternity! I can easily grant you that, and more!

"Leon Powalski, you are quite addicted to death. I can personally make you a torturer of all sorts- on and off the battlefield. And yada yada yada, you know the whole grant you unimaginable power thing!

"Adder, while I can't grant you the option of killing Oikonny- oh, no, he's much too valuable- I can give you back your family. That's right. I can bring each of your family members and friends back to life, and you can finally live in peace again!

"Tallon, you are obviously underappreciated. No one really cares about you or your opinions. Not even your mother or father could discern the real you from and Epitome of Shadow!" Fox and Krystal winced from the latter exclamation. "I can give you what you've always wanted- recognition as being among the best soldiers among the United Earth Military Forces!

"Slippy Toad and Ace Hawkins… Well, you two are both great inventors, but like any of the kind, your imagination can allow you to make fantastic confabulations, but you yourself are limited by the materials at hand. Siphoned planetary energy can be used to create almost any material you can think of! You'll be famous from the things you can create!

"Cristine Wil-"

"Oh, for crying out loud, everyone!" the vixen rolled her eyes. "It's Cris! Cris!"

"Alright, _Cris_," Iradanus shook his head, smiling. "You've lost your mother and father to war, and I know how much you miss them. Like Adder's family and friends, I can reanimate their bodies, and there will be no more turmoil for you again!

"Panther, huh? Not the most…imaginable name, but definitive, nevertheless. You've lost someone precious to you…Alicia. I can grant her life, and you can be happy again. You'll be at peace, possibly have children, have a family…start a new life, simply put.

"Marcus, I've seen how precise your aiming is. Why not put it to good use with the United Earth Armed Forces? I can craft you the perfect sniper rifle and you can be regarded as _the_ best sniper to ever live…not that you aren't already, anyways.

"Ah, Krystal McCloud. Do you remember anything about your home planet? About Cerinia?" She shook her head solemnly. "What about your family?" She lowered her head and shook it again. "That must be terrible to know that your family and homeworld are gone, and you can't remember a thing. I can restore your memory, and using it…we can create a new Cerinia, just the way you remember it, and of course, your family will be resuscitated as well.

"Lastly, the famous Fox McCloud. You may be quite the hero, but you've lost much. Your parents, namely. Simply put, I can bring them back to life with ease. No worries, just find some place to stay, and live in remote peace with your family and parents.

"Well, Lylatians…and Spade…I've shown you quite the display of hospitality, but now this is where I _really_ get to the point. I'll make it easy- pledge loyalty to us humans and attain your deepest, most intimate desires…or remain our enemies and end up like Brooks." He walked back to his desk and typed at a keyboard, then spoke into a microphone, "Sentry, you may start up the Chainlink."

In the background, a beseeching Brooks could be heard. A low whine started up, and he started to grunt. As the whine turned to into a roar, the grunts also turned into screams. The roar increased in volume, as did the screams, until finally…two loud cracks went off. Remembering its orders, the Sentry deactivated the torture device, and the screams faded into moans and sobs of pain.

"Pretty sounds, don't you think?" Iradanus turned off the speaker and started to conclude his long conversation. "Chains are wrapped around your limbs and they receive tremendous pressure as machines pull on them. Anyways, I've been quite generous to you all, and I can be much more so. You have plenty of time to make your choice…just be sure it's the _right_ one."

Fox thought about it. Though it would mean giving into the humans, doing so would grant not just him, but everyone's desires. And besides, the Lylatians were probably going to loose the war anyways. With the antimatter cannon and planetary energy on their side, the humans could easily stake out a swift and decisive victory. It was basically a win-win situation. He was about to pledge his oath of loyalty when-

"I decline."

Everyone looked over to who had spoken the two words, as did Iradanus and Oikonny with shocked expressions. The speaker was none other than Xamuros.

"So that's your game, huh?" the supersoldier laughed. "Either force your enemies to surrender or cause them to give into what they seek? You humans are so pitiful. I know what you've done to entities that lost to you. They were enslaved. They were so intent on getting what they want that they would do anything to achieve it. Including working for you humans. You merely bring the subject of 'granting your innermost desires' to keep them going. I do NOT wish to join the ranks of the enslaved. I will fight for my people's freedom, even if it means certain death!"

"Y'know what?" Aloysius turned to the human lord, "I agree with Xamuros on this. I'd rather be dead than work under any of you humans."

"Unreal dreams and desires are mere fantasies," Adder spoke. "Chasing after them will surely result in madness and sorrow. I also decline.

This caused a chain reaction that caused everyone else to decline as well. Fox, brought back to his senses by everyone's sound decisions, did the same.

Oikonny, in a state of total shock, asked, "S-so that's it, then? Is there…anyone who hasn't or won't decline?" No one spoke or budged.

The human lord's face twisted into an expression of pure hatred and rage and roared, "So be it! I've been playing 'Mr. Nice Guy' for far too long with you Lylatians! Instead of giving you your so-called 'desires' I will take what you cherish most away from you all! Xamuros, when this is all over, I will put all you Spades back into containment, and this time, there will be no escape! Aloysius, I will have what's left of your body ripped and torn to shreds by torture! Adder, Brutus! I will eradicate your kind- all serpents will die because of your choice! Leon, I will make sure that you stay without anything to kill for so long, that you will kill yourself! Panther, I know you have eyes for women…so why not kill Cris in front of your very own eyes?! Ace, Slippy; I will use your inventions to destroy the Lylat System and its inhabitants! You will both be the cause of your race's downfall! Falco, I will have you dragged into the depths of a planet! Take your pick- crushed by the pressure, or melted by the heat?! Wolf, there isn't much to take away from you but your life…and I'll make sure it gets done with excruciating slowness! Marcus, I'll gouge your eyes out! Tallon, you will be beaten daily! Then both of you will be executed before your parents, whom then will be killed themselves! No longer am I going to accept surrender from you Lylatians, I will kill you ALL!"

Even the Hunters reappeared out of surprise from the lord's burst of fury. The room suddenly felt extremely cold and unforgiving, as if everything Iradanus touched would assimilate his exact qualities. The dictator still stood, breathing heavily through bared teeth.

Fox was the first to speak, "So this is how the _great _Lord Iradanus deals with his problems. How sad. And I thought you were a good fellow, too."

Iradanus closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and sat back down into his leather swivel chair in response. He turned around and stayed silent for several seconds, then spoke in a stern tone, "Get them out of my sight." When not even the most battle-hardened Hunter moved, he roared, "DO I STUTTER?! GET MOVING!"

Now consumed by fear and panic, the Hunters exposed their arms and started reshackling the Lylatians. Fox groaned as chains were placed on him once more, and was then dragged for the door. Not wanting to anger their leader any more, they bashed it open, slightly startling the honor guard mechs outside. The kitsune groaned in realization that they were being carried off to separate parts of the base.

_Escaping is going to be one heck of a pain in the rear,_ he thought

* * *

Fox was shoved into a new cell, ending up face-down on the floor. As the door clanged behind him, and hurried footsteps of the Hunters could be heard, he took a look at his more modern cell. It now had concrete flooring and walls, with the exception of the one facing outwards, which was made of a hard, honey-combed grating and had an extremely small slit for a food tray to come through. There were no windows or light sources, save for the ones outside the cell. The only other things in the cell were a cot and a bucket for use as a crude toilet.

The orange-furred vulpine went to the door and looked outside. The cellblock was shaped like a horseshoe consisting of two floors, each with cell identical to his own. In the middle on some sort of extension from the wall was a surveillance platform with safety glass encircling it. This allowed the two guards station inside to have an unhindered view of the entire cellblock. Several cameras were also scattered throughout the room, as were additional guards- all of which had rifles or assault pistols.

Fox leaned back and fell onto his cot. _How the hell am I expected to escape from all of this? _he mused to himself. Suddenly, he got an idea and smiled. "Hey!" he yelled to a guard, which immediately came over to his cell door, "Can I get a towel or something?"

The guard did not reply in any way; he merely went down a flight of stairs to the first floor, where he opened a locker and removed a single towel. He then returned to Fox's cell and handed him the towel through the slit. He was barely able to fit his hands to the wrists through it and purposely dropped the towel. He then expected the guard to bend over to pick it up, which would allow Fox to attempt to kick the cell door over him. Unfortunately, the guard merely swept the towel with his foot to the stairwell, where there were no threats, picked it up, then went back to the cell. _Shoot, they really are trained, _he thought as he took the towel and slowly worked it through the slit.

The guard spoke for the first time, "I know what you were thinking. Don't even try. This POW camp has higher security and better trained guards than supermax prisons. We're prepared for anything you try to throw at us."

Fox sighed in dismay, but then, a strange thought worked its way into his head. A voice as smooth as silk spoke in his mind, [_Not everything._ _I will assist you._] At first, Fox thought it was Krystal, but whatever entity entered his mind definitely wasn't her.

"Hey! What the hell is that?!"

Both Fox and the guard turned around to see one of the other human soldiers pointed at an electrical conduit. Strange, multicolored sparks were flying in various directions.

The guard turned back to Fox and asked, "Are you doing this?" Fox shook his head in reply, "I didn't think so either."

Suddenly, the sparks zoomed along the conduit into the wires that ran throughout the cellblock. They came in contact with a security camera, fried it, and sent an acrid plume of smoke up into the air. It repeated this process on the other security equipment around the room, sending even more sparks flying and extracting curses from human guards and Lylatian prisoners alike. Even more mayhem erupted as the sparks rode up into the surveillance platform. They collided with the electrical equipment there, causing a flurry of sparks to fly, making the two humans stationed there to jump back in surprise. Then, neutrinos of various colors flew from the equipment and struck the soldiers, frying them dead.

"Holy crap!" the guard in front of Fox's cell cursed. "Open fire!"

The surrounding guards aimed down the sight and let loose a stream of bullets and plasma towards the sparks. They seemed unaffected by the projectiles, and they zoomed back into the electrical wires. The sparks came within close proximity of a guard still trying to fire at it and electrocuted him with neutrinos to such an extent that he was reduced to a black, charred skeleton in armor. The sparks then repeated the process for the rest of the guards, each falling like the last, until the only guard left was the one in front of Fox's cell door.

The voice in his head spoke again, [_I suggest you stand back._]

Fox leapt backwards as the sparks came into direct contact with the guard, shocking him with such force that he was sent over the railing and landed dead on the bottom floor. Meanwhile, the sparks went above Fox's door, where it fried the conduit regulating its opening and closing, causing it to swing wide open. The sparks then struck the chains binding Fox's ankles and wrists, breaking them apart, then faded into nothingness.

[_That is all I am able to help for now. Escape from this prison, Lylatian._]

"Wait!" Fox yelled out loud. "Who- no- what are you? Why are you helping me?"

There was no response, and Fox shrugged. The only thing left to do was free everyone else and get the heck out of here. In the meantime, he went over to a corpse and relieved it of its assault rifle and pistol.

An ursine soldier in the cell next to him called to him, "Hey! W-what about us, sir? Aren't you going to free us?"

"I will later," the leader replied, "but at the moment, large groups are going to limit mobility around the base. I'll escape, and then call in some troops to storm the facility."

"Alright," the bear nodded. "Just remember that right now, we're all somewhere in space near Meteo. It's going to take a bit of work to get out of here, sir."

"I'll manage, but thanks," Fox turned away and started off. _Now to start some noise. _

* * *

Adder was shoved into his cell in a harsh manner as the door behind him clanged shut. His cell, or rather the whole cellblock, was entirely identical to Fox's. The snake lied down on his cot in deep thought. He wanted to kill Oikonny and make sure he _stayed_ dead, but escape was a more important matter at the present time. The good news was that he had a plan. The bad news was that he needed to be well rested for it. _I can at least wait until lunch._

Fortunately, that moment would come soon. A lone human was distributing food into the cells via a small trolley. As he reached Adder's cell, he shoved a tray through. The serpent just stared blankly at what the humans called "prison food". It was nothing more than gruel with bits of carrots in it!

_Better this than nothing,_ Adder tried to make the best of it, and swallowed it down whole by expanding his jaws. With food in his belly, it was time to act.

"Hey, I think I found something in here!" he yelled to a guard. As he began walking over, the green-scaled serpent reached for the underside of his mechanical left arm, where a switch was located. He pressed it.

* * *

Deep inside the prison inside the security mainframe room, the cameras, wiretaps, and other security equipment of cellblock D7 were shorting out.

"What the-" an officer stammered. "You've gotta be joking!"

"Dang," another went, "there goes another one. That makes the seventh one this week and the second one today!"

"Somebody really needs to do something about the faulty wiring in this place. I mean, have you seen the dirty parts of the prison?"

"Yeah, I've seen 'em. I'll just call the technician tomorrow, and we'll get it fixed."

* * *

Adder confirmed that the EEJ, or **E**lectrical **E**quipment **J**ammer, was working properly, then looked up as the guard went up to him.

"What?" he asked, "What did you find?"

Adder replied, "I saw…THIS!" He extended the double-bladed energy scythe on his left arm and performed an upward stab through the cell door and into the stomach of the guard. The pit viper-cobra hybrid then slashed through the remains of the door and used the supreme strength of his mechanical limbs to break the shackles on him just as the rest of the humans got out their weapons.

The snake lifted up his mechanical arm and aimed for the closest soldiers, then squeezed his forearm three times. Small darts flew from an opening in his palm with three clicks and hit the necks of the adversaries. Filled with his own neurotoxin, the darts quickly finished their work. Three humans lay dead on the ground after four seconds.

Adder leapt out of the way as the watchmen in the surveillance platform opened fire on him with their plasma rifles. The veteran performed a combat roll to avoid the path of the shots, then fired two more darts from his palm. The security personnel in the platform were neutralized two seconds later.

A guard tried to sneak up behind him to whip him with his rifle stock, but Adder predicted it and caught the rifle butt with his right arm, then proceeded with an uppercut from his left, smashing the human's jaw into his brain cavity, killing him instantly. Within a minute, all threats in the room had been dealt with.

_Now to get everyone else freed and to get out of this infernal place,_ he thought. _First things first, I need some weapons._ Adder went up to the corpse of the human he beat down. He relieved the body of its rifle- an M-56 rifle, basically a souped-up version of the M-16 predecessor with almost the exact same shape. He also took the sidearm from the human- a magnum revolver, one of his favorite types of pistols.

Unfamiliar with the weapons or how to load them, Adder first tried out the magnum. He pulled back the action/drum disposal, which in turn, caused most of the top portion behind the barrel to come with it. The six-round cartridge was left exposed. _Wonderful, _he frowned, _Bullets._ He removed the drum, as if reloading, then placed it back and flipped the action back onto it. After experimenting with a number of ways to reload the magnum, he finally found a good combination- flip open the top part with his thumb, dump the cartridge onto the ground (or into his hand, if it still had rounds in it); shove a fresh one into it, and then flick the action back into place with a swift, downwards motion with his hand. He tried it out a few times, then opened up a compartment in his left thigh, which contained two adaptive silencers. After attaching it to the sidearm and extending it to a good length, he continued to the next weapon.

Adder couldn't find the action of the M-56 for several seconds until he noticed it was built into back of the handle at the top of the weapon. However, pulling it didn't release the clip, so he searched for some sort of mechanism that would. He found it- a small button located on the right side about an inch above where the clip would be put in; pressing it would release the clip of thirty bullets. _Hmph, quite convenient,_ the serpent mused. That meant that all he needed to do was press the button to release the clip, catch it if there were some rounds left, shove another in, then pull back the action. The snake was still puzzled as to how the weapon fired. He shortly found a switch that could go three ways: safety (not able to fire), semi-automatic (three-round burst), and fully automatic (fire as long as the trigger is held down). He then noticed a ridge underneath the barrel and in front of the magazine. It had notches about three centimeters from one another. It was an equipment rail, meaning extra equipment could be added. The snake opened up another compartment, this time in his right thigh. After a few moments, the weapon now had a pistol grip for better control of the recoil, a single-shot grenade launcher, in which he loaded a fragmentation grenade (shrapnel grenade); and a laser sight. Finally, he attached his last adaptive silencer and extended it to full length and width.

Adder relieved the human of his combat suit, flak jacket, and ammunition carrying case. Everything was tight on his body and it felt just weird, but it was better than running around the base in his undershirt and boxers. He then went to other corpses to attain more cartridges and magazines. Now he was ready, and the serpent headed for the passageway.

* * *

Wolf lay on his cot, thankful that the humans at least gave their prisoners of war edible (slightly edible was closer to the truth) food. He put his hands behind his head as he thought of any possible means of escape. At the moment, the lupine couldn't formulate a plan. Something in the cellblock (identical to Fox's and Adder's) was always there to possibly foil it. And after using an EMF miniature visor in his electronic optical eyepatch, he found that surveillance equipment would make it even harder to get out of here.

_It's gonna take a miracle to get outta here,_ Wolf thought, causing him to grumble slightly.

[_No,_] went another voice, slightly scratchy and shaky, [_it just needs some dirty play._]

_What? _Wolf shot up out of his cot. _Who're you?_

[_Just stay quiet, Lylatian, and watch,_] was the telepathic entity's response.

The gray lupine pressed himself against the cell door looked outside at the cellblock for whatever he should be watching for. A guard went to the one next to his cell.

"Hey, the shifts done, man," he told the drowsy one, "Go and get some rest." As the new guard took the post of the weary one, he suddenly fell to the floor.

The other human came running back, "Oh, Christ! Dude, are you okay?"

Still on his hands and knees, the human coughed up horrid amounts of blood, sputtered, then lay dead on the ground.

"Crap! We need a medic over here!" another soldier screamed. A sentinel was running for an alarm box when a dark aura surrounded the corpse, which flew like a ragdoll for the human, knocking him down as it collided with him. After a momentary state of shock from everyone else in the room the reanimated body lifted from the ground and swung its arms at the human with such force that the cracking of bones could be heard. The soldier lay dead on the ground, then was resuscitated in the same manner as the first.

"Shoot, dangit, shoot!" an officer ordered. "Somebody pull the alarm!"

Another soldier pulled the alarm, but for some reason, no alarm sounded off. It finally occurred to Wolf that all electrical devices in the entire cellblock were no longer functioning, save the lights. The corpses, their feet not even touching the floor, zoomed for the rest of the firing personnel, taking them down one by one, each being revived in similar ways. Neither bullets nor plasma procured any effect against the strange entities. Finally, six of these beings leapt for the surveillance platform, crashing through the glass and killing the remaining guards.

The corpses, with their job complete, fell dead once more to the ground. Wolf blinked, then fell flat on his front as the door he leaned on faded from existence. He looked back with widened eyes at where the door once was. One moment, it was there- the next, it had simply vanished.

Wolf got up and shook himself off. He was still puzzled at the inexplicable events that had just taken place. Then again, he was free, so he relieved a guard of his armor and weapons, tried the two assault pistols he found out, then dashed for the labyrinthine corridors.

* * *

Xamuros stood in a high-security cell, isolated from the rest of the cells in the prison. The room was extremely cramped, and three walls of grade-A steel surrounded him with a screen of energy separating him from the hallway.

_Great,_ he thought, _back in prison for me._ The supersoldier heard a bulkhead door opening and slamming shut. Footsteps could be heard making their way for his cell. He braced for the inevitable. Instead, however, a tall human in a lab coat stepped into view. He had a clean-shaven face with a pair of deep blue eyes that were screened behind a thin pair of spectacles. A small amount of brown hair lay on top of his head, and…he looked quite familiar.

Xamuros wasn't able to gape with in his mechanical form, but still bore the same feeling of surprise. He gasped, "D-Doctor Oxan?"

"It's been quite a while, Xamuros," he smiled warmly. "Quite a while indeed."

"Go ahead and say it," the field master turned away from his creator. "I'm a failed experiment. Say whatever you want. I can't do anything to you in here." To his surprise, he heard a descending hum instead. He wheeled around to see the energy screen gone and Oxan's hand on the switch.

"I find no need to," he replied. "This war has gone on long enough. Now go."

"W-what?" Xamuros stammered. "Y-you realize that you are betraying your own kind, correct?"

"So?" was the scientist's reply. "Oikonny has, too. I don't care. My kind is walking down the road to certain doom, and I must do everything in my power to stop them now. Get moving."

"But what about you?"

"I still have some business to take care of. Free the members of Star Fox, Star

Serpent, and Star Wolf. I'll meet you in the shuttle bay with transportation ready…and some new allies as well."

"Oxan…"

"Get moving, soldier. There is much work to be done."

Xamuros spun his head around, then stepped into the corridor and ran off in a direction opposite of Oxan…

* * *

Fox was crouched against the door to the next room, fingers gripped against the trigger guard and barrel grip of his AK-96 assault rifle. He had his head pressed against the door so that one ear was pressed along with it. Muffled voices could be heard from the room over. Several voices. Human voices. Definitely several, _armed_ humans' voices.

From what he could tell, he had some advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that he had the element of surprise on his side and that it was early enough in the morning that practically everyone in this prison was most likely only half-awake. Disadvantages included having insufficient body armor, being totally outnumbered, having an assault rifle that was powerful but too inaccurate and a pistol that was accurate but weak; and having no clue where to go. He didn't really have any odds favored towards him.

The kitsune had a few options. First, he could take the stealthy approach. He could just forget about firing his boisterous weapons and use melee combat to silently take down any threats. That was out of the option, considering the only good melee weapons he had other than his hands and feet were his rifle stock and his pistol, which he could use as an improvised club. Though this approach had a lower chance of raising the alarm, he would be in trouble if there were way too many enemies in a single area and had a higher risk of death. _Nope, _he thought.

The second approach was the "go-rushing-into-rooms-with-guns-blazing" one. Fox already gave it a mental thumbs-down because all the commotion would raise the alarm, lowering his chances of escape and survival.

The third method was the conservative approach. He could simply combine both tactics together. He would try to remain as stealthy as possible and open fire if needed. It could be easily said that he was getting the best of both worlds at the moment. It seemed to be his best choice, so this was the way he was going to complete his objectives.

Now for the objectives. Fox needed to free his team members and family, then somehow get out of here. He could also try to obtain some intel, if possible, but that would have to remain strictly as a secondary objective.

_Enough planning,_ the vulpine thought. _It's time to carry it out._

When the conversation the next room started anew, Fox kicked down the door, which just happened to slam into the human standing beside it, knocking him down and out. The remaining two soldiers were in a state of shock and confusion, and the kitsune took that to his advantage. He swung his rifle stock at the closer one, who cried out in pain as he fell dazed to the ground.

Fox was about to finish him off when he noticed that the other one was trying to get out his pistol. The Lylatian leapt at him, whipping him several times in various places on the body before he fell unconscious to the ground.

Fox then resumed to the task of the other human, now trying to get back on his feet. The commando gripped his rifle by the barrel, lifted it over his head, and brought the butt down on the human's face. A sickening crack ensued as the human lay still on the ground forevermore.

The leader of Star Fox panted several times, catching his breath with eyes wide. Did he just do that? Did he just mercilessly kill a defenseless human without a second thought? _They imprisoned us, _Fox thought, seeking justification for his act. _They are trying to exterminate us. I'm just trying to survive. It was called for. _He heaved up his rifle, the butt now tipped with blood. What's done is done.

Suddenly, several harsh klaxons went off. Fox's eyes narrowed and he slammed a fist into the wall. He had let the human cry out, and the rest heard it. _No holding back now,_ he thought as he clicked the safety on his rifle off. _This is survival. _

* * *

* * *

Okay, here's the first REALLY NEW installment after breaking up those previous chapters into parts. Now, this was an interesting chapter for me. Iradanus works over the protagonists (or tries to) and there are apparently strange forces aiding them afterwards... This chapter is one that's pretty much divided between the four main "leaders," Fox, Adder, Wolf, and Xamuros. ENJOY!!!


	25. Chapter 13, Part 2: Jailbreak

Chapter 13, Part 2: Jailbreak

Adder gazed through the door with his heat-sensitive pits active. He was now totally aware of all enemy positions in the area, and he had the advantage. It was time to-

The serpent was interrupted from his thoughts as the shrill cries of the alarm ripped through the air. _Dangit!_ he cursed in his mind. _Some idiot raised the alarm._ Even though this now made the humans on the other side cringe, then shift into ready stances with weapons ready, he could still do this. After all, he was a master of clandestine operations. The alarm was raised, but if nobody knew about his escape, nobody could do a thing about it. He let his pits rest, then cocked his magnum and extended his energy scythe.

Adder quietly opened the door, not wanting to attract too much attention, though he still startled the humans on the other side. Adrenaline rushed through into his head and time's pace seemed to slacken. He leapt forward while spinning, cutting the humans at the sides of the door in half with his energy scythe (and part of the door itself as well). When the farther humans were in sight once more, he opened fire with his magnum. Though the shots sounded like lengthened, distorted wisps while in he was in bullet time, in truth, they were like tiny clicks in the real world. The powerful bullets, not wavered by the decrease in muzzle velocity by the silencer, ripped into the chests of the humans, staining the walls behind them with red ooze.

Unfortunately, there was one human he neglected to kill or injure. Adder reached the limits of his adrenaline rush as time resumed its normal pace. He rolled onto the ground while dodging incoming fire, then kicked forward at the end, resulting in him leaping toward the foe. The serpent tackled the human into the wall, causing him to drop his weapon. Adder then flipped his magnum so that he was holding the barrel, then used its hilt as a bludgeoning weapon. He whacked the human's head time after time, spraying blood everywhere until the lifeless corpse fell limp.

There was some shouting coming from the next room, and Adder swore under his breath. _They must have heard the last human firing, _the serpent thought with a scowl on his face. _I'm loosing my touch, _he reloaded his magnum, _Gotta stay cool. No fear. No hesitation. _

Adder reactivated his heat-sensing pits and saw that the next room over was another cellblock with tons of Lylatians in there. And a bunch of enemy soldiers. They were all over the place in ready positions, with two taking aim at the doorway he was about to go through. Before he went into action, the snake noticed a rather large heat signature in one cell. Make that a _very_ large heat signature. With wings. _Aloysius,_ he thought.

Adder deactivated his energy scythes and took out his M-56, holding it by the barrel in his left hand. Then, he stepped back from the door and ran towards it, jumping about three-quarters of the way there into a jumping back-kick in which he swung around his rear leg into the door. The bulkhead entry was blown straight open, and Adder slid on his shins while leaning backwards as the two nearest humans fired over his head. While kicking himself back up, he fired a magnum slug into the neck of the right human, blowing his head off after his neck exploded. The other human was smacked squarely on the head with bone-cracking force from the M-56 rifle butt as he was coming up.

After the serpent got back to his feet, he chucked his rifle at an enemy across the room, hitting him squarely in the chest, knocking the wind out of him as he crumpled to the ground. He then leapt to the side, dodging incoming fire from the surveillance platform, and fired two well-aimed shots into the heads of the humans, sending a shower of shattered glass from the windows and blood from the soldiers.

Adder came to rest and panted from fatigue…just as something nudged against his head. He looked to see a smiling guard holding the M-56 he threw. The human pulled the trigger.

However, nothing happened. The soldier pulled the trigger more frantically, then looked back at Adder, his smile gone and one appearing on the serpent's face. The Lylatian's fangs were in his flesh before the hiss left his ears.

Adder picked up his rifle as the dead human fell and mocked, "Forget something?" He flipped the switch from _Safety_, which he set to beforehand, to _Auto_. He then looked around the room to see the rest of the Lylatian POW's gaping in awe, "Soldiers, you might have to wait a little longer to get freed. Aloysius, you there?"

"Y-yes, sir… In…here…"

Adder looked at the cell a few yards away and walked up to it. His companion was inside a full-body lock, restraining his movements. There were two strange spheres dangled from long rods on either side of his head.

"Aloysius, are you alright?" the leader asked. Aloysius stayed silent and he continued, "Oh, of course you're not. Hold on." He slung his rifle on his back and extended his energy scythes. With a few slashes, the hexagonal grating was gone, and so were the locks on the full-body lock.

Aloysius roared after getting free and smashed the two spheres next to him with his fists. He fell to his hands and knees, panting.

"Those…freakin' humans," Aloysius rasped. "They put ultra-low frequency radios in my cell! I'm gonna have that ringing in my head for the rest of this stupid day!" He emphasized his anger by smashing the remains of a nearby radio into bits, leaving a small crater in the floor.

"Nice to see you in your normal self," Adder rolled his eyes. "Present for ya." He relieved a nearby corpse of its M-56 and handed it to the armored bat.

"Uh," Aloysius looked at the rifle, "I'm gonna need more than just _one_ rifle."

"Good luck reloading, then."

The hulking Lylatian grunted and took the weapon in response. He knew his superior was right. Dual wielding two small arms and reloading them was hard enough. Dual wielding two _assault rifles _and trying to reload them was even more arduous.

"Shall we?" Adder asked, holstering his magnum and getting out his rifle, removing the silencer.

"We shall." Aloysius replied with a nod.

* * *

Wolf had his back to a pillar while bullets tore small chunks from its front. He let out another blind burst at his human adversaries, whom he believed were trying to flank him at the moment. He heard the shots ricochet off of the walls, and he cursed at his predicament. It was about to get even worse as a grenade landed near the pillar he used as cover. In the precious moments before the explosive detonated, he had two choices- run away from the grenade and get torn apart by bullets or avoid the bullets and get blown up. The former seemed to be a better choice.

The lupine leapt to the side, firing on his adversaries with his assault pistols, managing to catch one twice in the chest. As Wolf fell, he went into a roll just as the grenade created an orange blossom of fire. He was lucky enough to be just out of range, but the force of the explosion blew him sideways.

Wolf skidded along the floor, coming to rest a few yards away. He viciously fired into the incoming humans, taking another down while the rest sought cover behind the alcoves.

_Alcoves?!_ Wolf thought. _Did these humans anticipate a prison break or something?_ Suddenly, precise aim blew the two assault pistols out of his hands, and the soldiers were upon him, barrels aimed at his chest.

"Get up slowly with hands on your head, Lylatian," the first one ordered, spitting the last word out with distaste. As the lupine got to his feet…fire came from behind him, easily taking down the soldiers. Wolf wheeled around to see none other than Fox, his AK-96 raised.

"Hey Wolf," the vulpine smiled, "didn't you say something about whenever a war breaks out, _you_ are the one saving my hide?"

"Shut up, pup," Wolf growled taking two plasma pistols from the holsters of the fallen enemies, "and how come you get the AK'?"

"It just happened to be available, now let's get going. The quicker we get out of this place with our friends, the better."

Wolf, as Star Wolf's leader, wasn't one to enjoy taking orders. It hurt his pride as if someone hooked him up to a dogsled and told him to "mush". Then again, it was either start arguing over the chain of command or get the heck out of this infernal place, so he had better start learning to. However…that wasn't the only thing troubling him right now. Something about Fox had changed a bit since they last saw each other…something he couldn't quite put his finger on…

"Hey," Fox's shout jogged the lupine from his thoughts, "I said 'let's get going'!"

Wolf gave a barely-audible snarl and headed after the vulpine. _Why the heck did _he_ have to be the first one I meet?_

"So what exactly are we lookin' for first?" Wolf asked. "A way outta here, or our team members?"

"I'd like to find an exit route, but it's better that we increase our firepower before we do. There's no telling what'll be waiting for us."

_Jeez, he's startin' to sound like a brigadier general now._ Wolf mused.

"Alrighty, then," the lupine spoke, "so we're gonna rescue our comrades. So what's the plan?"

"We can't just be walking around this facility like blind mice," Fox replied. "We need to find some sort of map of the base, so that we can find both our friends _and_ possible escape routes."

"Well, I didn't see any. The humans must've had to memorize it themselves so that they didn't have to put up any maps for us to use."

"Then we're just gonna have to find one and…encourage him to tell us."

Wolf stopped in his tracks, "Now that I think about it, this doesn't sound like the _real_ McCloud I know."

Fox turned around and asked, "And why's that? Things change when you're a fugitive."

"Well, you seem a little smarter in terms what to do in this situation…and you have no shadow."

The ersatz Fox smiled and spoke, "That would have been a good way to find me…too bad it would have been more useful yesterday!" The kitsune's body twisted itself into the disproportionate, wretched body that was the Epitome of Shadow. Wolf noticed it was the same one from Iradanus' office and the day before, patches of bone showing and all. The lupine raised both plasma pistols at his foe, but four humans came from around the corner.

"Lylatian!" one yelled, "drop your weapons and put your hands where I can…Oh, hey, Abyss! Got him, eh?"

The Epitome of Shadow smiled, a difficult feat considering his mouth's placement, "You could…say that…" He turned to Wolf and, before he could react, bonded with the surrounding shadows.

The lupine looked in all directions, trying to find where the Epitome would strike…but for some reason…it never came. Suddenly, the Epitome lunged from next to the group of humans, making them jump in surprise, and let out its horrible howl-shriek. However, this particular howl-shriek was much more intense. Wolf had to drop his pistols, flatten his ears against his head, and put his hands over them to try to block out the sound. Meanwhile, the humans were immobilized by cold terror as the Epitome lifted its right, smaller hand, which now boasted a sharp, sliver-like middle finger. It made a single horizontal slash, and all of the humans dropped to the floor.

Wolf looked from the dead humans to the Epitome, then back to the bodies, then back again, "What the hell is goin' on?!"

"Heh, I'm really surprised you…haven't noticed a thing yet, Lylatian," the Epitome hissed. "Maybe this will…refresh your memory." It extended its smaller arm toward the corpses, causing a dark aura to surround them, reanimating the bodies.

"Y-you helped me earlier!" Wolf finally figured it out. This Epitome of Shadow was helping him!

"So now…you get it," the Epitome sighed. "The bodies reanimating…your cell door returning from the shadows from where it rose…It's about…time."

"So why the heck are you helping me?"

"It's not only you…I'm helping…but the rest of…you lot…You Lylatians will be aided…by the Epitomes…We have our own…reasons…for aiding you…"

"Does it have anything to do with the suffering you go through with the humans?"

"Close enough…but not really…come…we have ground to cover…," it levitated some shackles from a corpse's belt and slipped it over Wolf's wrists. "Just follow…my lead…"

The lupine nodded, "Alright, I get the idea."

"Good…which of your comrades…would you like to free first?"

He contemplated over this question for a moment. What would they need at the moment? Strength and firepower were already in his current disposal, due to the Epitome of Shadow. At the moment, there was no ideal person to rescue.

"Which one's the closest?" Wolf inquired.

"I believe it was…a certain fox…a blue one with strange eyes…"

_Sweet! Marcus!_ Wolf smiled, "Alright, then. Let's do it."

The reanimated corpses and the Epitome escorted the lupine down a few hallways and T-junctions, passing through several security checkpoints without suspicion before reaching their destination. The Epitome commanded a body to slip its card key into the slot when the door was kicked open. Marcus was standing on the other side, pistol extended outwards.

After laying eyes on the scene in front of him, he merely cocked an eyebrow and fired two rounds into the Epitome's head. The being took the hits and cracked its neck.

"I'll try to ignore…what just happened…," the dark being spoke. "Wolf, do you mind…explaining before he gets on my nerves?"

"Whoa, Marcus," Wolf held up a hand to stop the kitsune from firing any more rounds. "It's cool, it's cool! Apparently, this guy's on our side!"

"How can I be sure you're not an illusion?" Marcus replied, not believing a word of it.

"I have a shadow, for instance."

Marcus cocked his head toward the Epitome, "He could be creating it."

"Can you hurry up?" Abyss snarled. "I'm running…out of patience!"

"Alright…," Wolf tried to search for a way to earn the boy's trust, "Ah! You were with me on the research station! I remember you missed a shot!"

"Embarrassing," Marcus lowered his pistol and started to reload, "but true. First time I missed. Ever. Because _someone_ had to lean their head in the way!"

"Now that this game…of Twenty Questions…is over," the Epitome growled, "…can we get going, already?"

"Sure, but one thing," Marcus held up a lone index finger for emphasis. "Can I have that guy's assault rifle?"

Abyss sighed, "Just take it…so we can get…a move on!"

The corpse traded weapons with the vulpine and removed Wolf's shackles.

"I thought you wanted more inconspicuous approach?" the lupine raised an eyebrow.

"I'm too bored now…" Abyss smiled with his grotesque mouth, "I want to have…a little fun…"

"Works for me." Wolf got out his two plasma pistols.

* * *

Xamuros stood erect against a wall, hoping that the clacking of his spiked feet against the concrete floor hadn't caused much attention. Apparently, the humans had thought ahead when they imprisoned him and had deactivated his weapons, Longsword mode, shields, and most of the readouts on his built-in HUD. Luckily he was able to override the functions, though most of his HUD and Longsword mode were still down.

The field master leaned his diamond-shaped head around the corner, but only enough for his two right photoreceptors to view what was around the side. There was a squad of five soldiers- each in ready position, covering each other's blind spots.

_Smart, _he thought, _but not smart enough._ A targeting reticule appeared in his limited HUD and zoomed in on one of the humans- the commander by the looks of it. The reticule then swooped upwards to the halogen light fixture above the human, and then returned to the commander…who was without a helmet. _Maybe. Just maybe, if I get my shot right…_

Xamuros finally revealed himself and fired a single Jackhammer shard into the end of the light fixture, causing it to detach from the ceiling and swing into the soldier. Not only did the glass, which shattered on impact, cut his face, but the deadly halogens inside burned at the wounds, causing him to scream in agony. This caused panic to rise among the human soldiers, whose focus shifted away from whatever was the cause of the catastrophe to their leader's pain. And this was the moment Xamuros was waiting for.

The supersoldier fired with both his Daggerblade and Jackhammer with precise shots, nailing the humans in either the chest area or head. As the supporting soldiers fell, he dashed up to the commander- still screaming- and tackled into him. When they were on the ground, Xamuros laid his photoreceptors on his bloody face. He was the one who started firing at the Spades back on Corneria, causing all of his kind to go into containment. He remembered all the pain, all the sorrow, and all the malicious discrimination. Anger coursed through the Spade, making him tremble with rage.

"Remember me?" he hissed, or rather crackled with static. The human stayed silent, but breathed heavily, "This…is payback!" He plunged his lower arms into the chest cavity of the human and ripped it open. After additional cries, the human finally fell limp. While Xamuros was reveling in the feeling of satisfactory from his act of vengeance, the door that lay in front of him was opened. Two humans accompanied by a Sentry were on the other side.

"Holy-" one began. He was cut off as Xamuros dashed at him and performed an uppercut slash into his stomach, then blew his head apart with a Jackhammer burst. Before the Sentry could react and fire its advanced DEB cannon, he spun his head around horizontally, the sharp edges beheading the mech and slitting the throat of the other human. The soldier fell to the ground, dropping his weapon to wrap both hands around his throat. He looked up pleadingly to Xamuros, who instantly performed a roundhouse kick to his head, slicing it in half and spraying its insides everywhere.

"You dang SOBs can all burn in hell!" Xamuros roared. He stood up…only to get rewarded with a shotgun blast, knocking him off his feet and onto the ground. _Why the hell does this always happen?! _He looked up to his assailant, a human along with several others.

"What's this about us 'burning in hell'?" one mocked. "You're finished, rebel. Give it up and surrender. We promise we _might_ not kill you."

"On one condition," the Spade spoke calmly. "Think fast." He swung himself back onto his feet, and fired into the electricity regulation device on the wall near him with his Daggerblade. The room instantly went completely dark. Sporadic weapon fire from the humans created a lightshow of flashes until-

"Stop, stop!" a human yelled. "We're not hitting anything! Joe, hit the breaker switch!" Sounds of fumbling around the walls could be heard until the soldier found the switch and flipped it. The lights went back on, but there was no sign of the golden Spade. That was when the humans noticed a humanoid and rather pointy shadow formed on the ground below their superior.

The humans sheepishly looked right into Xamuros, who was hanging onto a light fixture's corners. With just a little increased pressure on the corners, he and the light fixture dropped towards the ground, and the field master barely had time to flip himself and the fixture over and onto a human, crushing him and breaking his spine in two. He then fired onto the remaining soldiers, who fell easily to the might of his powerful weapons.

"Think faster," Xamuros spun his head around. _Now to find a cellblock and free a comrade._ He continued down the hallway, searching for any sign of a cellblock. He came to rest at a large doorway. With a simple shot to the opening mechanism, it swung open…to reveal a feeding pen with two hungry-looking Epsilonian Raptors, who leered right at him. "Aw, crap."

* * *

Fox walked cautiously while refreshing his current clip. Behind him was a whole mess of bullet pockmarks, blood, and corpses. The kitsune kept his AK-96 level with his chest, ready to stab and slash with a recently-obtained trench knife he had attached to the underside of the barrel to serve as a bayonet. Just as he was about to round right into the next T-junction, Xamuros ran screaming past him.

Stunned for a moment, Fox called, "Hey Xamuros, over here!"

"Run! Run, you idiot!" he yelled back.

Puzzled, Fox looked at the opposite hallway to learn the reason why the supersoldier hadn't stopped. Actually, two very big and hungry reasons. Soon, the vulpine was also running screaming after the Spade away from the Epsilonian Raptors.

"Why didn't you say that you were being chased earlier?!" Fox screamed to the faraway Xamuros.

"You never asked!" was his reply.

Humans that lay ahead of them aimed down the sight to fire…then saw the reason why the Lylatian and Spade never raised their weapons. Sure enough, humans, a Lylatian, and a Spade field master were sprinting as fast as they could down the hall, not even bothering to concentrate and fire at their enemies.

"Why they hell doesn't anyone shoot at them?!" Fox growled.

"Raptors have too thick of a hide!" a human panted back, "Anyone got a frag 'nade?"

"¡Tengo cuatro!" another yelled.

"Throw all of 'em!"

The soldier hurriedly pulled the pins off his grenades, cooked them, and then simply dropped them on the ground. After four explosions went off, the two beasts still lumbered after their prey.

"Any more?" a human yelled. Not even bothering to reply a flurry of grenades was chucked at the monsters. Explosions echoed throughout the hallways before the raptors finally fell.

Relieved, everyone panted and put their hands on their knees, some laughing a bit. Then, the laughing ceased and smiles faded. Everyone looked at each other a few times…then sought cover and fired away.

Fox actually ran all the way back to the lifeless bodies of the raptors, taking cover behind a behemoth. True to the humans' words, the bullets actually glanced off of the corpse's hide, sometimes sending sparks flying. The Lylatian returned fire with his own weapon, nailing a human in the head and another twice in the neck. However, the AK was notoriously inaccurate, so Fox had to go for two-round bursts in order to make the rounds meet their marks. Xamuros, being a supersoldier, easily killed the rest.

The orange vulpine reloaded his rifle and met up with Xamuros, "Still not the best of luck, eh?"

"Hmph, so you noticed," the Spade huffed. "You?"

"Not much better. Well, that was an interesting course of events. Shall we move on?"

"The sooner we get out of this wretched place, the better."

Fox and Xamuros continued down the hallway, keeping a watchful eye…or photoreceptor…for any enemies. Strangely enough, they found none at all. _First it was all hectic, and now it's all empty. _the kitsune thought.

"Something's not right here," Fox spoke, narrowing his eyes and tightening his grip on his weapon. "It's way too quiet and it's way too empty around here."

"I'm not liking this either," the Spade dryly replied. "Stay on the lookout for anything that moves." As if on cue, a tile on the ceiling above collapsed to the ground, the corpse of a human falling with it.

"Like dead bodies dropping through the ceiling?" Fox raised an eyebrow.

"Well, that was unexpected," said Xamuros.

"Hey! Was that Xamuros I just heard?" came a voice from above. "Hold on, I'll be right down!" Suddenly, a familiar albino pit viper dropped from the hole in the ceiling tiles and landed with slightly bent knees on the floor in front of the pair.

"Ta-dah!" Ace smiled and held out his arms like a circus clown welcoming and audience. "Wouldn't you know that the ceiling tiles were so brittle?"

"Ace!" Fox sighed. "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"Same here, but…" Ace's smile faded and he got out two assault pistols, "I have some bad news…Um, what's that thing behind you guys?" Fox and Xamuros wheeled around to come face to face with an Epsilonian Raptor.

"I thought we killed both of them!" Fox's heart fell.

"So did I," Xamuros turned around. "Run!"

Without further ado, the trio ran down the hallways (much to Fox's and Xamuros' dismay, since they were doing it…_again_), with the Raptor quickly closing in. Fox could almost feel the hot, vile breath of the creature on his neck. Suddenly, a projectile streaked from the side and smashed against the Raptor, with a good-sized explosion following that ripped the beast apart.

As the trio halted in their tracks, a gray-furred lupine revealed himself, holding a carbine with a grenade launcher, "I keep saying it, Fox. I always have to save your sorry hide every time a war breaks out."

"Funny, Wolf," the kitsune replied sarcastically. "Who's your friend?" he pointed at the Epitome of Shadow following shortly behind.

"Him?" the lupine tilted his head at Abyss. "It's cool. Apparently the Epitomes are on our side."

"Can we trust them?" Fox asked Xamuros.

"I believe so," was his reply. "Oxan did mention some new allies he wanted to show us after he freed me."

"You mean the human that made you Spades? So we're not the only ones betrayed by our own kind, then. Okay, Wolf and…whatever your name is. C'mon, let's go!"

"It's Abyss…" the Epitome grumbled, "and we…have a bit…of a problem here…"

Marcus rounded the corner, back turned towards everyone else while firing. Before Fox could greet him, he spoke hastily, "Hi dad (_phibphibphib _went his assault rifle), I'd really love to talk (_phibphib_), but we really gotta find cover (_phibphibphib_)!"

"Stop whining…" Abyss held up his larger arm, palm open, then curled his hand into a fist. A disgusting series of bursts accompanied by short cries sounded off as drops of blood dotted the walls and parts of Marcus's armor, making him cringe, "Ooh…there's still some…more coming… I believe now's…the best time for us…to leave…Gather around me…" The three Lylatians and Spade reluctantly stepped closer to Abyss's foul body, "Now close your eyes…and do your best to ignore the dark, cold feeling…"

Before anyone was able to ask, Abyss expanded a shadow beneath all of them, and merged them all with it. Meanwhile, the humans' bullets and plasma bolts passed through or shattered against the floor where they had stood mere moments earlier. The soldiers gathered around the spot, some cursing.

"Non!" one growled. "Ils sort partis!"

"Yeah, they got away," another went, "but we can still catch 'em at their only exit. To the hangar, triple time! Go go go!"

* * *

"Now I'm going to say it nicely again," Adder whispered into the ear of the human he was choke-holding. Aloysius and he were in a damp, dirty corridor lined with human corpses. The armored bat was keeping a lookout while Adder was interrogating the last soldier alive, "Where is the nearest cellblock?" The human stayed silent, "Just cooperate and give the answer. If you do," The serpent opened his maws wide, exposing his seven-inch-long fangs, and then quickly closed it, "I promise I won't condemn you to eternal darkness."

"Erstes rechtes zweimal," the soldier muttered, "an dritter Stelle verlassen"

_Dang, he doesn't speak in a way we can understand,_ Adder thought, then spoke, "Look, you speak in a language we don't understand. Make motions indicating your directions." The human held up one finger, then pointed, "Is that your right or my left?" The German pointed to himself, then repeated the motion and added two fingers, "First right twice," Adder understood. Three fingers, then a left point, "Third and that's your left, correct?" A short nod confirmed it, "Thanks for being cooperative. Lucky for you, I keep promises." And with that, the pit viper-cobra bashed his head into the human's with enough force to knock him out.

"What'd he say?" Aloysius queried, slightly impatient.

"First right twice, third left," Adder replied. "If cellblocks around here are identical, it should have a security checkpoint before it…and a bunch of humans around."

"Fine by me," the bat started off for the junction. "Just kill anyone with plasma, or I'm totally screwed."

"I know the drill. Let's see if any of our friends are in there."

The two took the turns indicated, made a few shots and punched a few skulls in, and came to rest at a turn near a security checkpoint. A Sentry flanked either side of the heavy door. Adder made a point toward the Sentries, then made a fist and pumped it forward. Aloysius nodded in comprehension. The juggernaut rounded the corner and dodged a few beams of powerful directed energy, then fired his grenade launcher smack dab in the middle of the Sentries. The fragmentation grenade detonated on impact, sending a shower of shrapnel in random directions, mostly into the enemy mechs, tearing them into large pieces of metal and torn wires. Any of the deadly bits of metal that headed for Aloysius merely bounced off of his armor without harm.

Adder came around the corner and the partners took their places on both sides of the heavy door. The humans on the other side had obviously heard the commotion and had probably gotten into ready positions. He used his heat-sensitive pits to locate them, though he couldn't quite distinguish any of their fellow team members, as every Lylatian prisoner in there was either of the canine, lupine, or vulpine variety.

"Aloysius," Adder began his order, "kick the door as hard as you can, preferably straight, after one moment," He gave a harsh punch to the door with his left arm, perforating it and weakening the hinges, "Go ahead."

The war-ravaged bat made a jumping back-kick to the door. As if it were made of cardboard, the door flew into the room all the way across to the other side and into a human, sandwiching him against the wall behind him and crushing the life out of him. The pair headed inside and easily started taking down humans, Aloysius pummeling his bullets into the enemies and Adder taking down the biggest threats with dodgy flips and combat rolls.

After everyone human in the room was indeed dead, Adder began searching for any team members when-

"Adder?" came a soft voice behind him, "Is that you?"

The serpent turned to see Cris behind a metal grating, "Cristi- ah, Cris! Alright, stand back." He extended the energy scythes on his arm and sliced through the grating, causing a large circle to fall out, the sides red-hot from the heat of the blades. After they cooled, the white fox easily stepped through.

"So how many times does this make?" Cris blushed and scratched the back of her head.

"Counting the other wars and that one time with the gunboat," Adder spoke, "eleven times that I had to save you."

"Well, uh," Cris walked towards one of the many human corpses lining the area, "I'm gonna go get some armor and something with a scope, I guess."

"Alright, you do that," Adder acknowledged as Cris began stripping the armor off of its owner.

Aloysius, in the meantime, walked up to the snake and whispered, "You like her, don't you?"

"Huh?" Adder squinted an eye at his friend (snakes don't really have eyebrows to raise, so they squint instead). "Who?"

"You know who I'm talkin' about," Aloysius crossed his arms still whispering. "You like Cris, don't you?"

"Of course I like her," Adder tried to end the matter quickly. "Wouldn't you like the team members you have if you've worked for them for years?"

"No, Adder," Aloysius leaned closer, "_like-like._"

"You mean-" Adder now looked directly at his comrade. "Aloysius, now is _definitely _not the time for this kind of talk."

"Look, man, you can easily tell she likes you. She blushes when she's near you and she's not as rough as she used to be. And I _know_ you like her, too."

"A war's not the best time for this. Maybe I can think about it when it's all over."

"Adder, there might not _be_ a time. Don't you remember? The humans have our blueprints now- Ace's blueprints! If they make a single antimatter cannon, they'll win easily! You gotta make your move and-"

"Um, can I help you two?" Both of them turned to see Cris, now dressed in combat armor and totting a scoped carbine, looking quizzically at the two of them. "Can someone tell me what's goin' on here?"

"Cris…" Adder spoke slowly, "how long have you been standing there?"

"I heard something about Ace's blueprints, and making a move or something."

_That was a close one, _the snake thought, then sighed, "Okay, then. We better get moving so we can-"

"Adder said he likes you."

The veteran wheeled to see Aloysius, and even though he couldn't see it, he knew the bat was smiling inside, "Aloysius! You weren't supposed to-"

Cris giggled a little, which was such an uncommon thing that it made Adder stop talking even in his indignant feelings toward Aloysius, "Alright, that's enough. So Adder, is it true?"

"Well, ah, um…," Adder stammered, searching for something to say that could get him out of this uncomfortable situation. He didn't have to, because at that exact moment, a shock trooper stepped into view, its black armor gleaming against the white walls and floor. The snake was both relieved and angry at the same time- relieved because he didn't have to say anything to get him out of the previous mess and angry because he now had to deal with the shock trooper. The strange thing was that the shock trooper's helmet's left eyehole was darkened…

"Hm, quite a coincidence that we meet again here, eh?" it spoke in a strangely deep and commanding voice. "This time," it extended its claw gauntlets, "you're all dead."

"You _again_?" Cris groaned. "Why doesn't this guy leave us alone?"

The shock trooper leapt high into the air and at Cris. Seeing the adversary about to slash into his comrade, Adder extended his energy scythes and blocked the attack, then deflected the biogenetically-altered human so that he ended up on the ground. However, the shock trooper then used the hooked part of his left claw gauntlet to trip Adder, causing him to end up on the ground as well.

The two wrestled on the ground for a few seconds before Aloysius walked over…and simply picked the shock trooper up like a child picking up a new pet received for his or her birthday. The shock trooper swung his claw gauntlets at the bat…which all broke instantly on contact with the armor. Not daunted one bit, the shock trooper threw a punch at his helmet's visor, then cried in pain and withdrew his ruined hand. It had been like punching at a tank.

"You don't give up easily, do you?" Aloysius shook his head, then gave a light (or at least light by his standards) punch to the shock trooper's helmet, causing him to go out like a match. He then simply dropped the trooper on the floor.

"Why'd you let him live?!" Cris cried. "Now he'll never leave me alone!"

"Ah, well," was Aloysius' reply. "He was quite entertaining."

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Adder started off. "Let's get out of here. I think the hangar's close."

"Gladly," Cris replied. "Wearing a male human's armor…it just feels all _wrong_!"

In his mind, however, Adder was happy that the matter had been put to rest…for now, at the very least. But…still…did he really…love her?

* * *

"Yeah, baby!" Wolf screamed, "The hangar at last!" The lupine was on his hands and knees on the floor, overcome with happiness.

"Abyss," Fox huffed, "I hope we _never_ have to do that again."

"Well…" he rasped, "it got us…over here, right?"

"All that aside," Xamuros spoke, "does anyone realize that the entire hangar is almost empty?"

Wolf and everyone else looked around. The hangar was practically empty, aside from the ships, fighters, and equipment you'd usually find in one…save for four people. Tallon, Krystal, Leon, and another Epitome of Shadow were in the middle of the hangar.

"Krystal! Tallon!" Fox ran along with Marcus to the rest of his family and embraced.

"Heh," Wolf smiled, "he's such a family man. Leon! How's it going?"

"All good," the viashino replied, "I see you already know the Epitomes are on our side now. Tallon over there's a little weak, so we needed to watch over him. Have you seen anyone else?"

"Nope."

"Speaking of which," Ace turned to Abyss, "do you know when everyone else'll be comin'?"

"Apparently, yes…" the dark entity confirmed. "They should be…here right…about…now…" Right on cue, a Seraph's shadow lengthened before an Epitome of Shadow came out of it, along with more of the team members- Brutus, Panther, Falco, and Slippy, all of which collapsed to the floor.

As everyone else went to greet their friends, Wolf went up to Panther, "Alicia seemed to be with you on this one, huh?"

"Ah, you got here through the 'shadow express' too?" the wildcat asked.

"Yep. I ain't goin' on it again. Hey, wait a minute…we're missing Adder, Cris, and Aloysius!" Just then, a loud _toopha _went off as Abyss was nailed in the head by a carbine round.

"Yeah, well I didn't miss his _head_," Everyone turned to see Adder, Cris, and Aloysius enter the hangar. Cris' carbine had a trail of acrid smoke rising from the barrel.

"Whoa, whoa!" Wolf held up his hands. "Stop! They're on our side!"

"How can we be sure you're telling the truth?" Adder pointed his assault rifle directly at the one-eyed lupine, "Or are you even the real Wolf?"

Wolf grinned, then answered in a sarcastic accent, "Is that guy an idiot or something? BAM! Headshot! Remember that?"

"Hah! I'll never forget that!" Adder laughed. "Yeah, that Venomian was kinda stupid, choosin' to stand in front of the tank instead of behind it for cover! It's you."

"Alright…" Abyss grumbled, "now that…we're all here…let's get out of…this place!"

"Hold on," Xamuros stopped him. "We need to wait for Oxan. He's gonna get us out of here."

"Huh?" Krystal asked. "Guy with glasses and brown hair?" Xamuros nodded, "Yep, that's him. He slipped me an energy pill through the bars as he passed by my cell."

"Wait," Falco spoke. "So the humans have a traitor, too? Sweet, now it evens all out!"

"It sure has, Mister Lombardi," the scientist stepped from the doorway, a suitcase in his right hand, "it sure has."

"Oxan!" Xamuros spun his head around. "I'm glad you're-"

"Xamuros," Oxan's face suddenly turned pale, "why are there three Epitomes of Shadow here?"

"Them? Didn't you say you were going to show us new allies?"

"Yeah, Oxan, or whatever your name is," Ace smirked. "Man, these guys are _awesome_! They can do all sorts of-"

"Guys," Oxan spoke slowly. "They aren't with us or for us." Every smile in the room disappeared, and eyes turned to the Epitomes of Shadow. Wolf looked straight at Abyss, who was smiling in his wicked way.

"Crap!" Fox yelled. "Ambush!" Before the Lylatians, human traitor, and lone Spade could react, static crackled all around them as Hunters, cloaked humans, and Alpha mechs appeared in all directions around them. They were completely surrounded.

"It was a trap," Wolf spoke, a bewildered look on his face. "A setup this whole time…"

Abyss laughed in a fiendish way, causing those nearby to cringe, "Of course it was! …Not even I, the Epitome of Abyss…could generate enough power…to return a cell door…to the shadows…from whence it came!"

"What?" Marcus asked. "Epitome of Abyss? Isn't it Sha-"

"Within each breed of Epitome," Oxan interrupted, "is a leader- the one that is most powerful. The fact that Abyss is here right now is bad enough already. But being trapped with all these guys _plus_ him is even worse."

"So this is the traitor in my midst," a familiar voice called out. Soldiers parted to allow Iradanus, who was accompanied by Oikonny, to step into view before forming the wall again, "Oxan, when I smelled a rat, I had no idea that it was you who would be foolish enough to betray your own kind when victory is _still_ impossible for the Lylatians."

"Iradanus-" Oxan began, but was cut off.

"You shall address me as-" now Iradanus was interrupted.

"Address you as what?" Oxan stood firm, "'My lord?' You shall never be my ruler, Iradanus. The new government you created for all of humankind is a mockery of the glorious democracy that was before it! I want to put a stop to this, even if it means betraying my friends, my family- my race! It's the same way these Lylatians," he turned to everyone else, then quickly turned back to Iradanus, "felt about monkeyboy, over there."

Oikonny stepped forward, but Iradanus held up an arm to block his passage, and glared, "I never would have thought that such a remarkable scientist as you would stoop so low and commit such treachery! But…so be it. If you wish to side with these Lylatians, you will die along with them. Oikonny, I like how you say it better, so go on ahead."

The simian smiled and roared, "Soldiers! Allow no hesitation! Fi-" He was cut short as a bullet hit him squarely in the head. Wolf was amazed to see Adder aiming down the sight of his M-56. Unfortunately, Oikonny was still alive, and he merely cracked his neck, "I'm surprised that you haven't noticed that I cannot die, you idiot. I should have killed you when I had the chance, but why not just now? As I was say-"

"Two words, Oikonny," Oxan smiled after seeing the monkey stamp his foot on the ground from being interrupted again. "Two very short-but-meaningful words- trump card."

Wolf was puzzled as to what Oxan meant by this as the wind kicked up behind him and started blowing small bits of debris and light objects towards the back of the hangar. The lupine, as well as everyone else, turned to see a Cornerian battleship ascend into view. The spear-shaped ship was lined with homing laser beam cannons and laser machine gun ball turrets. As the humans and Hunters took aim at the battleship, two identical-albeit-smaller Cornerian cruisers flanked either side, and space/atmospheric gunships came into view as well.

The intercom crackled to life as the commander of the battleship hacked into the comm network, "Iradanus of United Earth, this is General Hare aboard the ULS _Glory_! The United Lylat System Armed Corps will allow you ten minutes to leave the premises of this station before we board, evac the POWs, and then blow this whole thing up! If you fire, our gunships will return fire at will and slaughter every human or human ally in there!"

Oxan merely smiled and turned back to Iradanus, "So what's it going to be? Fire and die, or flee and live another day?"

"Fine," Iradanus narrowed his eyes. "I, Lord Iradanus of the United Earth Armed Forces will concede to your demands and leave this station," he then turned to the troops, "Everyone, let's leave this place. To the escape pods, on the double! Order of rank does not matter!" As the soldiers and mechs scurried off, Iradanus turned to Oxan, "Mark my words, Oxan. I will have your head." Then, he and Oikonny walked off for the escape pods as well.

"Dang, man," Wolf smirked. "If that isn't the best news all day that we get outta here, then I don't know what is!"

"Heh," the scientist grinned. "That it is, Mr. O'Donnell. I believe it is time for us to leave." A transport landed in the hangar, opening its doors wide as everyone filed inside.

As the pilot lifted the transport off and zoomed off for the battleship, Adder spoke, "You know…Richard Oxan, isn't it? You know, Dr. Oxan, you will now be marked as an enemy against humankind. Plus, with the way things are now, we'll most likely lose the war anyway, and you'll be executed."

"I am well aware of that, Mr. McBannon," Oxan answered. "But I doubt that'll be a possibility."

"And how so?" Slippy asked. "They've got all this siphoned energy to use, they've still got dozens of siphoning facilities, and now they have tons of the weapons and armor blueprints Ace and I made! We're gonna lose, no matter what!"

"In the order they have been presented, Mr. Toad," Oxan began, "I will first start off with that fact about siphoned energy. Now, it is very hard to manifest into the type needed for energy or warfare. In fact, Oikonny was resurrected practically through sheer luck. We don't really need to worry about that possibility. Also, I personally know the location of every siphoning facility on every planet and moon, so that's out of the way. As for the blueprints…," he took his suitcase and emptied the contents- several rolled up sheets of blue paper and a CD case, "I think you can find out the rest."

Ace immediately seized all of his precious plans, "Aww, yeah! Oxan, how'd you do it?"

"Being in the research and development department has a few benefits, Mr. Hawkins. You'll notice that all blueprints are accounted for, including the antimatter cannon."

"Wait," Brutus picked up the CD case. "Interesting. A disk to be used on a personal computer. Wait, is this what I think it is?"

"Yes it is, Mr. Kinsley," Oxan took it from him. "The codes to our encryption device."

"Yeah!" Ace smiled. "Now we can decrypt that hard drive's data and we have a better chance of winning this war! Oxan, I don't care you're a human, 'cause you ROCK!"

The last word caused the pilot, a squirrel, to turn around, "Sir, please excuse me asking, but may I ask for you to be a little quieter? It's a little hard to successfully land in a moving ship without concentration."

"Oh, sorry."

Wolf couldn't help chuckling a little and shaking his head, then remembered something, "Wait a minute. Oxan? Didn't you say you were going to show us some allies?"

"Hm?" the scientist gave the lupine a quizzical look. "What allies?"

"When you freed me from my cell," Xamuros spoke, "you told me you wanted to introduce us to new allies."

"What are you talking about? I was spending most of the day in R&D getting the blueprints and encryption code CD! Then, I contacted the Cornerian Defense Force and headed to the hangar to wait for them to arrive, not expecting you to be there already! I never visited anyone's cell!"

"Wha-?" Xamuros actually looked shocked, "Then who visited my cell?"

"Yeah, and who created all that electricity that freed me?" Fox added.

"And I was freed when one human started killing his own guys," Wolf also added, "then those guys were surrounded by some black stuff and started killing the rest! Then my cell door vanished!"

"And what about the energy pill I saw you gave me that restored my powers?" Krystal asked. "What are the reasons behind all of those?"

Oxan was speechless for a few seconds, then responded, "I don't know." Everyone fell silent as the transport touched down.

* * *

Aboard the _Dreadnought_

0947 hours

Xamuros was once again walking down the hallways of Star Serpent's magnificent mothership. He went down a series of white, clean hallways before entering the hangar…which apparently still had the hole from the test run with the antimatter cannon. There, Ace, Slippy, and Oxan were busy decrypting the files on the hard drive they had found previously at Research Facility Gamma.

"Oh, hey Xamuros," Slippy greeted. "What brings you here?"

"I was just seeing how the decryption's coming along before I leave," he replied.

"Well," Oxan spoke, "once we get the program running, we should be able to decrypt all of the information with a single click of a mouse."

"How long is that going to take?"

"Only a few moments more," Ace answered, "aaaaand…done! Alright, let's get it started!" he rubbed his hands together energetically, and then clicked on the same triple-A priority file he had selected earlier. Like before, it showed up as a series of numbers and letters that seemed to have no correlation whatsoever. Then, Ace right clicked to make a small menu pop up and selected "Decrypt". The seemingly random numbers disappeared as text took its place.

"Yes!" Slippy cheered, making a fist and pumping it into the air. "Sweet, now we can-" There was suddenly a scratching sound that came from the hard drive, "Wh-what was that?" Then, the newly decrypted text started to fade away.

"No!" Ace screamed. "No, no, no! Argh, can this get any worse?" Suddenly, a single line of text appeared. It read: "Nice try, Lylatians, but no cigar. You failed."

"Well, it got worse," Oxan sighed and removed his glasses. "Iradanus tricked us again."

"No," Xamuros spoke, anger welling up inside of him. "No! How could we let that jerkoff play us for fools so many dang times?!"

Then, another word appeared on that same line: "Godspeed.". Xamuros worked his mind to try and find out what it meant. Immediately, he went for the worst scenario. _No, it can't be! We would've noticed it!_ he thought. His suspicions were confirmed as a beeping came from inside the hard drive, slowly building up speed.

"Crap!" Xamuros cursed, "It's a bomb! Run!" The two Lylatians, Spade, and human scrambled away from the desk and then fell to the ground as a gigantic fireball engulfed an area equal to a large garage. After the shock faded, the four looked to see nothing more than the charred remains of a work desk and unfinished inventions.

"Curse you, Iradanus," Xamuros whispered harshly. "Curse you."

* * *

The conclusion of chapter 13. We're getting close here, only a couple more chapters until the final one.

While working this part out, I had a serious, serious case of writer's block. For about a month, I was just plain stuck. No work at all. But at any rate, I finished it, and it's done. Moving on, turns out that something OTHER than the Epitomes are working for the Lylatians' cause. You'll see more of this, especially in the last chapter and even more especially in the sequel.

Aaaaaaand still more of that Adder-Cris romance stuff. =P Adder's not too smooth with women currently, but Tarkov saves the day! ...Sorta.


	26. Chapter 14: Night Raid, Part 1: Rough La

Chapter 14: Night Raid, Part 1: Rough Landing

February 29, 2362

Aboard the _Dreadnought_

2159 hours

_Destruction. Eradication. Annihilation…__**There was total darkness… Then seven beams of light rushed forth…**_

_Sorrow. Depression. Melancholy…** A corpse of an unidentifiable Lylatian…one riddled with bullets …**_

"Hey, wake up." a voice called out, though unnoticed.

_Massacres. Slaughtering. Decimations…__**There was pain…there was absolute suffering…**_

_Signs. Omens. Harbingers…**Untold horrors…an ancient power beyond imagination…**_

"Come on! Get up!" there was the voice once more, again drowned out by the magnitude of the other thoughts.

_Darkness. Shadows. Absolute corruption…__**You may be able to heed these warnings…but nothing can be done to stop the inevitable…**_

"CORNERIA TO KRYSTAL, WAKE UP!"

The blue-furred vixen shot up with a scream from the clamorous yell. In front of her was Adder in his undershirt and a pair of jeans, a megaphone raised in front of his mouth.

"I have to admit," the serpent crossed his arms, "you are a _really_ heavy sleeper."

"Wha-?" Krystal yawned and rubbed her eyes before laying them on the digital clock, "You're waking us up at ten P.M.?! We just got back on the ship a few hours ago!"

"When an opportunity presents itself, do you use it or lose it?" Adder asked.

"Opportunity?" she raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying we're-"

"-going to attack the humans now?" he finished her sentence for her. "Yes."

Krystal was getting out of bed when she noticed that she and Adder were the only ones in the room. She inquired, "Adder, where's Fox?"

"Mess hall," he answered as he turned for the door. "He woke up before you, and he didn't want to disturb you when he awoke. See you there."

Krystal sighed before heading into the bathroom for a quick steam shower and to use the toilet. She wasn't normally this tired, ever. _It's probably the stress I've been going through the past few days, _she thought, _Taking on a siphoning facility on Aquas, getting captured, drugged, escaping…_ Of course she was tired. Who wouldn't be after all that? She then realized that everyone else was probably as tired as she was, if not more.

_Argh,_ she put both hands to her face, _I'm getting too old._ It was true. She was forty-three-years-old. While medical technology did extend the average Lylatian's lifespan to over a century-and-a-half, no one could deny the fact of growing older.

But…what about what she experienced before waking up? Krystal pondered over it. It seemed a lot like a dream…but was it really? It sounded as if someone- or something- was trying to contact her- it sounded like a prophecy of some sort. But what of these "beams of light" and "ancient power"? It didn't sound like anything the humans had now, though siphoned energy could have something to do with it.

Not wanting to dwell on those facts any longer, Krystal dismissed her complaints and musings, got dressed in a simple pink T-shirt and jeans, and then headed for the hallway. After a few seconds, she reached a teleporter and thought of the mess hall, her mind slightly drifting towards her family. She reappeared in the mess hall, where the members of Star Fox (including Slippy), Star Serpent, Star Wolf, and Oxan were.

As she walked towards the table Fox and Oxan were sitting at, Brutus called out to her, "Well if it isn't the sleeping beauty! Come on, have a bite to eat!"

"Please, don't flatter me," Krystal smiled. "Sorry, I don't have much of an appetite at the moment. We just had dinner two hours ago."

"Adder said that we have a huge mission ahead of us tonight. At least have some carbohydrates."

"Sounds good. Just a bagel will do."

Brutus got a bagel out of a container, then stepped for the mini-oven…and remembered what a little albino inventor had done with it. He turned back and asked, "Is a non-toasted bagel alright? We don't really have any other options."

"Fine by me," Krystal accepted the snack. "Thanks."

The vulpine was now able to sit down at the table Fox and Oxan were at. Before she sat, she noticed that the human had been asking all sorts of questions about Lylatian society.

"…and I can see that-" Oxan cut himself off as Krystal sat herself down next to her partner-for-life, "Ah, this is your wife, am I correct, Mr. McCloud?"

"Yeah," Fox put an arm around her shoulder and smiled, "we've been together for twenty-two years."

"I see," the scientist nodded as Krystal began to munch slowly on her bagel, "Back to the questions, I can see that you Lylatians eat artificial meats."

"Well," Krystal responded after swallowing, "most of us don't like the idea of eating someone else in the room very much."

"Ah, that is easily understandable. Now, how about-" Suddenly, a quick series of beeps went off from the other side of the room. Krystal looked up from her bagel to see Slippy looking at his wrist comm.

The amphibian's smile faded when he saw the caller I.D., "It's Amanda. Jeez, this is gonna hurt, but…Uh, Brutus? Is that a supply closet?" he pointed at a door on the far side of the mess hall.

"Yeah," the boa constrictor confirmed, "but, what do you-"

"Excuse me for a bit," the toad got out of the table and headed for the door, opened it, got inside, and slammed it shut. Everyone stared at the door for a moment before a distinct, "H-hello, sweetie?" could be heard.

Though the words themselves were indistinct, the fury of Slippy's wife was quite apparent. Even through the door, the pitch of the angry words that came from the wrist communicator was enough to make even the battle-hardened Adder wince and made Aloysius get up from the table he was sitting at and quickly walk away from the door. After some arguing from Slippy, which was quickly put down by Amanda's fiery attitude, and cringes from everyone else, the door finally opened with a dazed-looking Slippy Toad.

"I-I'm in trouble," he managed a weak smile.

"We noticed," everyone spoke back in almost perfect unison.

"Now if you excuse me, I gotta go before-"

The wrist comm blared, "Stop talking and get over to our house, NOW!"

"Yes, dear!" Slippy just ran straight into the teleporter. About thirty seconds later, his signature Bullfrog arwing could be seen flying out into space, swerving a bit, obviously from the harsh remarks from the wrist comm.

Aloysius was the first to speak. As he banged the side of his helmet, he sighed, "Okay. That one hurt my ears a bit."

"I'll try to ignore what just happened," Oxan sighed. "Anyways, I'll leave you two alone. Hey, Aloysius, can I ask you some-"

"No," the bat growled and stormed off.

"Is he always like that?" Oxan inquired.

"Yeah," Fox nodded, "I think Wolf'll like some company, though."

"Ah, thank you, Mr. McCloud. Mr. O'Donnell, sir! Can I have a moment of your time?"

After Oxan left to question a reluctant Wolf, Fox asked, "Mornin', Krys. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes," Krystal put her head on his shoulder. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"You know me. I didn't want to disturb you…Is something wrong?"

"I didn't say there was," she lifted her head from her husband's shoulder and looked at him.

"I've been with you long enough to know that. What's wrong?"

Krystal sighed, looking down, "I'm just worried about Tallon. Is he alright?"

"He's fine, but…I've only just realized how much we've neglected him over the years. We give Marcus all the attention. I don't want him to feel like he's not recognized."

"Me too. I just hope it's not too late to make it up to him."

"It's not, mom," the two looked to see their younger son standing behind them. "It's fine, really."

"Tallon," Fox stood to face him, "it's not fine. Son…I apologize for what I-"

"-we." Krystal added.

Fox continued, "-we've done. Things'll be different around here, from now on. By the way, where were you?"

"I was in the weight training room," Tallon cracked a smile. "Didn't sleep a wink."

"Tallon, you know that we're about to go on a huge mission!" Krystal gaped, "You've got to get rest!"

"Mom, it's alright. A few cups of black coffee and I'm-" the vulpine was interrupted as a roar came from somewhere in the room.

"Holy crap!"

Everyone turned for the kitchen, where Brutus vaulted over the counter as a Hunter lumbered after him, barely dodging a stab from its whining drill. Krystal gritted her teeth and curled her right hand into a fist. A white aura enveloped it, and she snapped her fist open toward the biogenetically-altered human as streaks of electricity rushed forth from her open palm and struck the Hunter's head, causing it to explode.

"Damn!" Adder cursed. "How'd he get onboard?"

"I don't know, sir," Brutus replied. "Jeez, I could have sworn that thing was a counter…"

"It seems that we still have some company on the ship, people!" Adder called to everyone else. "From now on, nobody goes around the ship without a weapon!"

"How many enemies boarded our ship since we were gone?" Wolf put a hand to his temple. "As far as I know, there could be dozens more of these Hunters on this ship!"

"We can worry about that later," Adder reached into his pocket and pulled out a small envelope, "There's a battlefield to get to."

"Envelopes?" Falco asked. "Aren't we supposed to get a personal briefing from the generals?"

"As of recent events, no. It seems that the hard drive that we took was also an intel tap. It stole most of our comm frequency channel numbers, so that's out of the question. Alright, soldiers, get to the armory now and prepare for departure! No questions asked! Oxan, stay here. ROB'll guard you."

As the yellow robot stepped into view, Aloysius laughed, "ROB?! You're asking ROB to defend him? He couldn't even stop a regular soldier!"

"I would rather not have anyone underestimate me, Aloysius," ROB clamored. "I am quite efficient."

"How so?" The droid responded by reaching both hands to his back and pulling out two enormous gatling guns, easily holding both at once.

Aloysius stared for a moment, then spoke, "Uh…Okay, I think I trust you now."

Krystal stuffed the last of her bagel into her mouth and headed into the teleporter. Going through the devices had become so regular that everyone had become quite familiar with the feeling of being disintegrated that it became almost nonexistent. After a moment, the vixen reappeared in front of the armory's archway and headed inside.

As everyone crowded into the armory, Ace spoke, "Hold on, people. I have some new armor for you guys."

"What?" Cris raised an eyebrow. "You only have a few hours since we got back!"

"And what you're trying to say is…" Ace rolled an index finger, inviting an answer.

"Good point."

"Anyways," Ace went to a vault and opened it, revealing fourteen combat suits. Though each resembled their original counterparts, Krystal could feel that something was different about them, "Well, I didn't really think that Slippy would be leaving so soon, but these are your new combat armor suits. Basically, I just installed the regenerative shield system from the diving armor into our older versions. Though the same concepts still apply, I also incorporated a new device into it, thanks to Oxan's help. There's now a new device that I've developed that can filter electronic fog, allowing all electronic devices inside the suit to function properly and giving you the ability to see through electronic fog, though it does have a slightly limited range. It'll automatically kick in whenever it comes into contact with it, so there's no hassle."

"Time and time again," Leon started suiting up, "you really have outdone yourself."

"Outdone?" Ace squinted an eye. "Not really. Now my next project…yeah, that'll probably be somewhere close."

"Next project? What's next?"

"I'd be ruining the surprise, now wouldn't I?"

"Sorry for the interruption," Adder tore open the envelope and began reading its contents, "but get ready, now!" He was already suited up and had his signature shotgun. Nobody even noticed that he had already gotten prepared.

Krystal, as well as everyone else, started getting into the suits. After donning the helmet at last, she continued for the weapon racks. In addition to taking her staff as a backup weapon, she chose an MP-101 as her main weapon. The weapon was in the shape resembled an assault rifle, but it had been shrunken down to such an extent that one could hold the weapon with one hand. Though it wasn't very powerful, the forty-five-bullet clip, small size, reliability, and the almost-nonexistent kickback made up for its shortcomings. Plus, since she only needed one hand to carry it, her other hand was free to use telekinetic powers if necessary. However, she decided that she didn't want to be reloading for this mission, so she replaced the curved clip with a heavy-duty laser charge, starting it up with a small whine.

Krystal went to pick up some grenades and was about to select two frag grenades when she noticed another set of strange-looking ones. They were perfectly round, and the hexagons composing it made it look like a miniature soccer ball. Spike-like protrusions covered it like a rolled up porcupine.

"Hey, Ace," Krystal pointed to the grenades. "What kind are these?"

As the albino put his scissor-esque weapon and energy blades on his back, he answered, "They're called splitters. They're sorta like regular frag 'nades, but when the shrapnel becomes imbedded in something, like a human body or soft soil…or metal, the pieces shatter, sending microshrapnel all over the place, then those pieces do the same until the pieces aren't large enough to divide. Hardcore."

"I like the sound of that," the telepath smiled to herself, picked three, and clipped them onto her belt.

"Alright, people," Adder checked his wristwatch, then tore up the message, "Chop, chop! We gotta get moving in two minutes! Panther, if you're gonna use that thing you might as well bring a pea-shooter!"

Panther shot an angry look at him, "What's wrong with a bolt-action rifle? It can fire whole DEB charges."

"Alright, but bring something for close range. There's gonna be a ton of tight corners where we're goin'. Aside from the flirt (Panther scowled at this), anyone else who ain't done?…Good. Panther, you're holding us up! Get moving!"

The wildcat finished personalizing his SMG with a round drum, then growled, "Done. Happy?"

"And it's about time, too," Adder checked his wristwatch again, then spoke into his wrist comm, "Hey, Schmidt! Where's that transport and bomber we need!"

A garbled voice replied, "We're on the way, sir. Should be here any moment."

"I don't want 'any moment'! I want those things here _pronto_!"

"We're almost there, sir. Don't worry." A rectangular landing ship, along with an SC-342AC bomber, passed through the force field that protected the entrance from the vacuum of space and landed on the floor.

"Come on," Adder motioned for them to get inside. "Ace, get in the bomber and pilot it! Everyone else, inside the transport! Move move move!"

Krystal clambered into the landing ship, got into a seat next to Fox, Marcus, and Tallon; she slipped the safety harness over her head while Star Serpent's wunderkind entered the bomber. As soon as the last elite soldier was buckled in, the two ships lifted off and zoomed for the _Dreadnought_'s bow.

"ROB," Adder ordered into his wrist comm, "create a slipstream rift so we can get to Titania."

"Understood," the robot acknowledged. "Creating slipstream rift. Destination, Titania. Do you wish to bring the _Dreadnought_ as well?"

"That's a negative. It'll only be us this time."

"Copy that. I will keep the ship here until further notice. Generating slipstream rift now."

A beam of energy erupted from the mothership's prow and created a small rip in the space-time continuum, revealing the desert planet of Titania. A bright flash consumed the two ships as they were converted into beams of energy that raced to the other side of the slipstream rift.

On the other side, vision soon returned back to normal and Krystal gazed outside a viewport at Titania. To her surprise, the planet looked a bit greener. Large swirls of clouds covered much of the atmosphere. This seemed to be contrary to the humans' energy siphoning's effects, considering Titania is, or at least was, a desert planet.

"Krystal," Fox elbowed her, "look out the other side."

She craned her neck so that she could see a viewport on the opposite side. Her eyes widened when she saw about a dozen bombers, hundreds of landing ships, and a lone capital ship outside.

"This is Zeta oh-three-two," the pilot, an elk spoke, "I repeat, Zeta oh-three-two on standby."

"Copy that," General Halcyon's voice sounded off. "I see that you are finally here, commandos. I trust you have received the mission briefing and destroyed it?"

"Affirmative, sir," Adder answered. "Ready when you are."

"That would be now. Ships! Prepare for entry into the atmosphere! Squad leaders, brief your soldiers on the way! We'll jam radio and radar, but keep above the cloudline until you are ready to drop and maintain radio silence until I give the order to land! Bombers are the exception and have separate orders! Good luck, soldiers, now move!"

The pilot punched then engines, and the ship lurched forward as Adder got out of his seat and grabbed a handrail for support.

"Alright, guys," he began. "Here's our mission tonight. We're going on Operation: Eclipse. I'm gonna shorten it up as much as possible and give you the details.

"We're here tonight to raid the siphoning facility district on Titania. You heard me right. Facility_ district_. We're working in unison with several other companies in a joint operation, including mech and armor, to take down a group of siphoning facilities in a gigantic complex. It will _not_ be easy. Intel says that we should expect landmines, bunkers, concertina wire, and the like. We can also expect heavy defenses along with added enemy mech and armor support.

"Once we reach the atmosphere, we're going to stay above the cloudline until the bombers soften up the enemy and the general gives the word to land in order to avoid detection. After the order's given, we're going to head in fast and low, landing as close to the district as possible, surrounding it as much as possible. From there, we're going to head for the district, getting into tactical positions. After that, I don't think I need to tell you what to do. We get inside the facilities, and blow them up! Any questions? …Good! Now get ready for entry!"

Adder quickly seated himself and brought down his safety harness. As the landing ship entered the outer atmosphere, the ship jolted, then rocked at a steady rate. Looking outside the window, Krystal saw heat accumulate along the front, sides, top, and bottom of the ship in an orange glow as friction caused the outside of the ship to heat up. After a few seconds, the ship slowed down and leveled itself with the horizon. Looking outside, the vixen saw that the cloud cover completely obscured her view of the ground below, with only a few patches where she could see the surface.

"Alright, sirs and ma'ams," Schmidt leaned back in his seat, "now, we wait."

* * *

"This is Beta Squadron leader to Eagle's Nest," Ace spoke into the radio. "Come in, Eagle's Nest. Over."

"This is Eagle's Nest," Halcyon's voice crackled, "what is your status? Over."

Ace looked outside. Several of his bombers were flanking his sides in Delta formation (V-shaped). Below them, there were some patches through the clouds in which the siphoning facility district could be seen. The district was completely enveloped in electronic fog, obscuring his view completely."

"Status: clear, Eagle's Nest," he answered. "No sign of detection yet. I'm reporting electronic fog. Do we have clearance to begin the attack run? Over."

"Affirmative, Beta Squadron leader. Scatter your bombs as much as possible. Those facilities are only vulnerable on the inside, so just soften up the defenses. Over."

"Understood, Eagle's Nest. Over and out." Ace switched his radio frequency to fleet-wide network. "Alright, boys! Let's get it on!"

Cheering erupted through the speaker as Ace dived towards the surface, the rest of the bombers following suit. As soon as they dipped beneath the clouds, anti-aircraft flak fire exploded around them, creating medium-sized explosions of black smoke.

"Reporting flak fire, sir," the radio blared, "Should we take evasive action?"

"Negative," Ace replied. "Retain formation. I repeat, retain formation." He then leaned back and yelled over the boisterous engines, "Bombardier! Can you see through the fog?"

"Yes sir!" came a shout from underneath him. "The bombsight's filter is operational!"

"Good," Ace nodded, then went back to the radio. "Okay, everyone, prepare to bomb!" He called to the rear, "Patterson! Open bomb bay doors!"

"Doors opening, sir," a report came from the back, barely audible over the whine of the doors.

"Everyone ready?"

"Sir, yes sir!" calls went over the radio.

"Dive below flak range and bomb! Hold on, everybody!"

With that, Ace pushed up on the yoke, causing the nose to tip almost all the way down. Flak explosions became more intense as the bombers neared the surface. A flak bomb exploded at the left wing of another bomber, causing it to veer into another flak bomb. Orange flames dotted the bomber for several seconds as the crew leapt out with evac jetpacks on. As the fire reached the fuselage, an explosion ripped the bomber apart. Ace swerved hard right to avoid getting caught in the debris field.

"No!" Ace shouted into the radio, seeing the other bombers start to break formation. "I said retain formation!" With some reluctance, the bombers resumed their original positions, another bomber taking the place of the fallen one.

The bombers were nearing the surface now, and Ace tightened the grip on his yoke as flak fire began to decrease and machine guns started to fire their tracer rounds. _Come on…,_ he thought, _just a little more…_

Just as Ace could barely see the tip of a building, he pulled up as the bombardier began to release bombs onto crucial defenses, such as artillery emplacements, pillboxes, guard towers, and bunkers. Harsh whines filled the air as the rest of the bombers did the same. Orange blossoms of fire set the late night aglow as the bombers raced through the district.

"Yeeehaw!" the bombardier yelled as gigantic explosions trailed behind the squadron of bombers. "This has to be the best bombing run I've ever been on!"

Ace tried to avoid the tops of buildings, manipulating the bomber's pitch and yaw to avoid hitting a building. It took every ounce of his concentration and skill to keep such a large aircraft from becoming nothing more than charred metal. Beads of perspiration dotted his forehead. One bomber wasn't so lucky. It accidentally scraped along the side of a siphoning facility, breaking of its right wing and causing it to spin rapidly before crashing into the streets.

"Dammit, people!" Ace yelled. "If you can't do it so low, then climb higher!" He could see the end in sight- he could barely see the end of the district. "Almost there…," he thought aloud, "Almost there…"

Just as he reached the end of the city, and the bomber exhausted the last of its deadly cargo, Ace punched the engines into afterburn and shot high into the sky with the rest of the squadron.

The albino panted as he leaned back in his seat and asked, "Casualties?"

"We've lost three bombers and two crews, sir," his radio hissed. "Your orders?"

"Land somewhere and get into position," he replied. "We still have a long night ahead of us."

* * *

Back on the transport, the radio blared, "Clearance to land! Go!"

The pilot started with a slow, descent. In the meantime, a large hole in the clouds revealed the planet's surface. Krystal couldn't believe her eyes! Titania was already unfavorable due to its desert planet...but with the humans' energy siphoning, the planet had been transformed into a dark, swampy bog. Torrential rainfall washed against the window panes of the transport ship as it dropped below the cloud line…then lurched forward as flak explosions from anti-aircraft emplacements began dotting the sky.

"Come on, baby," Schmidt whispered. "Keep it up…" The pilot made several evasive maneuvers, mostly jinks and half-rolls, in order to avoid flak and tracer fire.

"By the gods!" Brutus gasped as he looked outside. Flak explosions had become so intense that they were occurring within meters of another one within seconds.

"Whew," the pilot panted as he dipped above the tree line, "we're below flak range, now. We should be-" He never would be able to finish his sentence. A stream of tracer rounds had riddled the front end of the ship, causing equipment to explode, along with the head of the elk.

"Oh, crap!" Falco yelled as he freed himself from the safety harness and ran for the cockpit. Just before he reached the yoke, the ship crashed into a tree, causing it to be deflected into the swamp, crashing against another tree after rolling several times. As everyone lurched forward in their seats, the avian flew through the windshield and into the bog.

"Falco!" Fox yelled. "Are you alright?"

"Dangit, Fox, you know I am!" Falco screamed back. "Now get out! That thing's gonna explode!"

Krystal looked around her, everyone was alright, but fires were creeping for the fuselage. In a few dozen seconds, the ship would turn itself- and everyone in it- to cinders! Everyone ripped off their harnesses and went for the door, but it was mostly in the swamp, meaning it was underwater. They couldn't get out that way.

"Aw, jeez," Wolf scanned the room, trying to find an exit. "Are you kidding me?! How're we gonna get out?!"

"Get behind me," Krystal screamed. "Everyone!" As the commandos got out of the way, Krystal put both palms in the air, facing the floor, which was tipped up at an awkward angle. She pushed forward, causing the metal to tear itself away from the ship, creating a massive hole.

"Go go go!" Adder yelled as he helped others through the door before getting out himself. Once they were outside, they ran as fast as they could away from the ship, falling into the bog as the fire finally reached the fuel tank. The explosion created an inferno of raging fire and pieces of metal, and the teams' shields barely managed to deflect the large projectiles.

After the deadly rain of metal had subsided, everyone got up to their feet, extracting groans from several people. Krystal looked around. They were standing in a knee-high swamp, with twisted, mangled trees and plants growing from the foul loam. Electronic fog hadn't reached outside of the facility district, thankfully, though it was so pitch black that everyone immediately switched to night vision as the light of the explosion faded.

"Is everyone alright?" Brutus asked. "Hey, Falco! You out there?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Falco stepped into view. "Is everyone here?"

Adder performed a headcount, "That's all of us."

"Great," Marcus grumbled. "Now how the hell are we going to get into position?"

"How else, bro?" Tallon pointed for dark forest. "We walk."

"Tallon's right," Fox nodded in agreement. "We crashed facing the district, and then we got out on the left. So all we need to do is go right."

"Well, that's the theory, anyway," Adder shrugged. "What're we waiting for, people? Let's move!"

Krystal removed her MP-101 from her holster as the familiar feeling of being watched caused her to shudder. "Everyone," she whispered, "Get ready. I'm having that feeling again."

"You heard the lady," Wolf spoke quietly but fiercely, "Keep a watchful eye for anything that's moving. Now let's go!"

Krystal looked behind them. There was something odd about the swamp, but she couldn't really put her finger on it. Scanning the area once more, she warily followed everyone else.

* * *

The creature had been watching the group advance toward the city, lurking in the shadows- waiting, watching. As it slid from around the tree, a thin beam of moonlight shined upon its head…upon which there was no face. To it, the world appeared in black and white. With no eyes to see through, there was only two other ways to find prey- scent and sound. An orange trail exuded from the Lylatians, and each step they took and each letter they pronounced showed him where they were. Nothing could hide from it. Everything was visible to him…even without sight. With a gurgle form the swamp below, it bonded with the very earth it was born from, with only a trail of tentacle-like roots showing where it was heading. Even then, they were hidden in the murky depths of the swamp. It was a danger that no one would notice…until it was too late…

* * *

* * *

Part 1 of 4 of chapter 14, this one featuring our favorite telepathic vixen.

Over the course of the previous chapter, it appears that quite a few Hunters popped up inside the _Dreadnought, _showing just how outdated the security systems are on that mothership. I don't exactly know why I put that into the story, namely because I don't remember what I did over two years ago. XD

Anyways, this will be one of the last of the missions remaining before the final battle for the Lylat System. The Lylatians and Spades are giving it all they've got in this battle for Titania, this time where they're on the offensive as opposed to the first chapter.

Only a handful of installments left, everyone! Read and review!


	27. Chapter 14, Part 2: Danger from Beneath

Chapter 14, Part 2: Danger from Beneath

Krystal gazed up as she trekked through the swamp with her teammates. Flak explosions were still dotting the dark night, as well as tracer fire, casting bright lines of light. Making their way through the swamp wasn't easy- every so often, someone tripped over something underneath the water's surface or got their leg stuck in the mud below.

"Fox, are you sure you're taking us the right way?" she asked as she freed herself from the filthy ooze around her leg.

"I'm sure," he replied. "See anything, Marcus?"

"Not yet," their older son answered. "All I know is that we're headin' the right way. Wait!" his voice suddenly dropped to a harsh whisper. "Everyone, get down!"

"What?" Adder shot a confused look at the kitsune. "What's out there?"

"I see four humans about ten meters ahead of us," he replied. "What are your orders?"

"Surround them, then open fire when I give the signal. Get into position."

Krystal made her way to the left of the group and went prone, sinking into the bog and becoming completely obscured. Everyone else took different hiding places, such as behind the foliage or in the dark shadows of the swamp.

The group of humans got closer and closer to the soldiers, and Krystal prepared to get up and fire. However, she detected different thought patterns from the approaching humans…they seemed more posed to protect that Lylat System than destroy it…

Krystal realized who they were about to fire at and she leapt up, "Adder! Call off the attack! They're comrades!"

"Wait!" Adder got out and put his arms in the air before everyone fired. "Hold your fire! They're on our side!" Everyone else got out of their positions to see four other Lylatians in similar armor- canine twins, an eagle, and a praying mantis.

"Dangit, Marcus!" Brutus grumbled. "I thought you said they were humans!"

"Hey," the vulpine shrugged guiltily, "how am I supposed to be able to tell?"

"You gave us quite the scare," the praying mantis chattered, clacking his mandibles together as he spoke. "So I guess we're not the only ones who didn't arrive in style, guys. Let's team up and head toward our positions." He made a salute with his scythe-like arm, whom the others hastily followed. "Corporal Briggs, sirs and ma'ams!"

"At ease, corporal," Fox and the rest returned the salute. "I didn't know bugs were allowed in the army. I knew some were good mechanics, but not soldiers."

"We were recently recruited," Briggs explained. "You see, most of us are impaired due to our lack of hands," he lifted up his scythes, on which two laser rifles were attached to, "but we manage alright, sir."

"Alright, men…and women…," Adder called, "we've wasted enough time with introductions and explanations, but I think we should, oh, I don't know…GET MOVING ALREADY!"

"Jeez, man," Leon sneered, "I guess somebody woke up on the wrong side of the floor."

"Look, Leon," Adder walked up to the chameleon, glaring with unsympathetic eyes, "this operation is critical to defeating the humans, and more importantly, keeping the Lylat System out of harm's way. As of now, the attack is going to commence in two hours. The way I see it, we're not even a quarter of the way through this swamp, and having more soldiers to look over isn't going to help quicken up our pace. So, we're gonna get moving, whether we like it…or not. Are we clear?"

"Yes, we are," Leon gulped.

"Then let's go."

Krystal, not wanting to provoke Adder again, reached out for Fox's conscience and thought sarcastically, [_Well, he seems to be in good spirits tonight._]

Fox replied, [_None of us are exactly well-rested either. Who can blame him?_]

[_Still…he usually isn't this uptight…_]

Krystal quickened her pace to keep up with the others. The blue kitsune heard a strange sound- a sound like sticks cracking- and she turned her head towards the direction of the sound, barely catching the sight of what looked like a tentacle-like tree branch retreating back into the darkness in the corner of her eye. _Could that have been my imagination? _she thought, questioning her own awareness at such a late time. _It might have been, but…_ She reached out with her mind, letting in the consciences of all the living things around them touch hers. The only things she could detect were her friends, family, and the soldiers that had just recently joined them.

"Is everything alright, Krystal?" Fox looked back at her, concerned.

"Yeah," she responded, "it's just that I thought I saw something."

"You're sure it's just 'thought', right? Are you sure really didn't see anything?"

"I'm sure. The only minds I can detect are ours and the others'."

"Alright. Just keep a lookout for anything out of the ordinary."

"I couldn't help but overhear, sir and ma'am," the eagle spoke up, then pointed, "but is that considered out of the ordinary?" Everyone looked at where he pointed. She saw nothing. "No, guys, look a little bit higher…"

Krystal looked up to see the corpses of several Lylatians and Spades suspended in what looked like moss on a tree branch. The bodies of both kinds were riddles with small puncture holes accompanied with larger ones. The thing that really bothered them though was the fact that the corpses' faces had been ripped off, exposing their skulls with their twisted, everlasting smiles- even the front ends of the Spades' heads were ripped off.

"What the hell happened here?" Cris asked. "It looks like something skewered these guys then ripped their faces off!"

"Are you sure you want the answer?" a canine asked.

"Not really…"

"Neither do we," replied the other twin brother. "Commander McBannon, shouldn't we get moving before whatever did this shows up? Y'know, before it's too late, sir?"

There was a small tremor as a fissure opened up in the swamp, spraying the foul water everywhere as a humanoid shape rose from the earth. Its body was entirely made up of twisted tree branches, with two especially long ones creating two arms. A collection of roots formed two legs, which firmly attached themselves into the ground. The head was merely a lengthened upside-down pentagon of cleanly shaven bark; no facial features were present. Different kinds of moss and lichen dotted its body. It shuddered a little before letting out a piercing scream.

"It's too late," Adder leered at the new adversary.

The entity started making its way for the group as lasers, bullets, and plasma bolts ripped into it, splintering pieces of its wooden body as it took the punishment. It then lashed out with its tentacle and sent Wolf flying into a tree, then twirled around, causing the limb to trip everyone else. Briggs was the first to get back to his feet and leapt at the creature, digging into its body with a slash from his scythe-like arms. It merely shrugged the arms out of his body and kicked the mantis away into the darkness.

By this time, Krystal and everyone else had found a safe place to hide as the monster searched for its prey, trying to make as little sound as possible. It was clearly puzzled by this, and Krystal thought, _Wait…it's blind! It can't see us!_ She immediately established telepathic contact with everyone else, [_Guys, the thing's totally blind! As far as I can tell, the only sense it's using is sound!_]

[_Ow, that one hurt a bit,_] she heard the thoughts of the mantis. [_Well, at least we're making some progress, ma'am._]

[_Alright, so any ideas on how to kill this thing?_] came Adder's thoughts. [_I don't think it enjoyed being pummeled by our weaponry, but there has to be a faster way that this._]

Their silent conversation was interrupted as the creature appeared to inhale deeply though an unseen mouth, then let out a small exhalation. Several branches from its body extended outwards and pierced themselves through the cover the soldiers were using, sending them down into the muck from the shock.

[_Or…it could be able to smell us too…,_] thought Panther.

It just so happened that Krystal was the closest target, so the creature started toward her. She started firing her MP-101 with deadly accuracy at the thing's head, but the only thing she managed to do was send bits of wood flying through the air. Clearly angered, it pinned her to the ground with one arm, then lashed out with its other one. The vixen caught the branch before it struck her in the chest, but it was slowly overpowering her. Just as the branch was about to reach her armor, rapid-fire shotgun blasts tore into the creature, causing it to release the grip on her as she scrambled away to see who was attacking it. Adder was emptying whole clips into the monster, causing wood to splinter everywhere. At last, after letting five empty clips drop to the swamp, Adder had reduced it to nothing more than a pair of legs and a hip.

"…Is it dead?" Panther asked. "I mean, really dead? I'm just asking because usually, the enemies we face don't die as-"

"Darn it," Falco shot the wildcat an angry glance, "don't jinx it!"

"Sorry to break it to you, Falco," Fox sighed, "but I think he jinxed it."

The legs and hip remained motionless as roots from the surrounding trees started slithering from their rightful owners and into the creature, regenerating its old body. As its faceless…face finally reassembled itself, it let out a small huff, and lashed a branch at Adder. Though the shields absorbed the hit, the force still sent him into the swamp. The wooden, regenerative entity then headed for the serpent…then stopped. It looked around, actually looking confused and breathed a few times. Then, it appeared to abandon going after Adder…and went for Wolf instead. As everyone else watched the lupine pummel the creature with machine gun rounds, which only caused it to regenerate the parts it lost, Krystal looked from Adder to the creature. A smile crept along her muzzle as she expressed her idea to everyone else, [_Everyone, drop into the swamp and stay still!_]

[_Are you sure it's gonna work?_] came Wolf's frantic thoughts. [_My MGs are starting to overheat here!_]

[_I'm positive, now do it!_] Krystal commanded.

Wolf ran as fast as he could away from the creature, then fell into the swamp, staying motionless as the rest of the soldiers did the same. Though the creature initially went for the area where he last heard the water splash, it stopped, at loss as to where everyone was.

[_Uh, Krys? What just happened?_] asked Fox.

[_Simple,_] Krystal explained. _[It can't hear us because we're not moving, and the swamp's stench is masking ours!_]

[_Normally, Ace thinks of this kind of stuff,_] Aloysius' gruff voice echoed in her head, [_but I gotta say, that's a pretty good idea!_]

[_Yeah, just one thing, ma'am,_] the eagle's thoughts drifted towards hers. [_What are we gonna do now?_]

[_Well,_] Krystal silently got into a crouch, [_I'm going to teach it the downsides of having a wooden body and living in a bog. Are everyone's shields high enough to withstand force equal to a grenade's?_] An assortment of different answers came in and she asked, [_Can everyone just say 'yes' or __'no' so I can actually tell?_]

After sixteen confirmations rang out, she stood up, attracting the attention of the behemoth, which slowly lumbered after the sound of water sloshing. Krystal backed up as fast as she could, hoping that she wouldn't trip, as a red aura surrounded her left palm. After the aura intensified, she swung her hand toward the monster, fingers extended, as a raging inferno erupted from her palm, singing it and setting it on fire. It screamed in pain and attempted to extinguish the licking flames by rolling around in the water, sending a plume of steam into the air. Unfortunately for it, that was just what Krystal wanted it to do, a white aura now surrounding her left fist. She snapped the fist open at the sopping-wet creature, which sent electricity crackling across its body. Unfortunately, this did the same to everyone else in the water, but they had the benefit of shields, while the creature did not. As her own shields were getting low, Krystal clenched her hand back into a fist, stopping the flow of electricity. The creature now laid smoking in the swamp, and slowly got to its hands and knees (or rather its branches and roots). It sounded as if it were coughing, then looked up as Adder stood up…and fired a grenade right into its chest. Pieces of the creature flew apart as the orange explosion lit up the night and cast everyone's shadows across the swamp for several meters.

"Now stay dead," Krystal panted. "Phew, I'm glad that's over." Using such powerful forms of telekinesis for such a long duration had used up a lot of her energy. "Aren't we all?" Adder reloaded. "Alright, people, count your limbs and let's go."

"I'll try not to take that personally," Aloysius grumbled. "Wait, where's the corporal?"

"Um, up here, sir." Everyone looked up so see the mantis stuck in an awkward position in a tree, unable to get down. "A little help, please?" Aloysius merely shot the branches off, causing the mantis to fall down into the swamp, getting back to his feet after a few groans, "Not my finest moment ever, being kicked into a tree." The group jumped as tremors rocked the ground.

"Tell me that isn't what I think it is," Brutus shook his head. "Please, don't tell me!"

Sprays of water shot through the air as three fissures opened up and three creatures crawled up from the crust. Krystal recognized one of them as identical to the creature that had previously attacked them. However, the other two appeared to be different. One was composed of dozens of rocks in a humanoid shape, while the other was much like the first, but crawling with locusts. The only thing they all had in common was the mask-like piece of bark.

"It's what you think it is," Leon grimaced. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting the heck out of here!"

No argument was needed for everyone to agree. Krystal had used most of her energy on the last creature, and she wasn't hoping to waste anymore on the rest. She turned tail and ran after everyone else. Suddenly, several stones flew past everyone and reassembled into the earthen creature, blocking everyone off.

"Wrong way!" Falco yelled, then scrambled to get around the creature as a swarm of locusts headed him off, then formed into the third version of the creature. No one needed to look to know that the remaining monster blocked the remaining way. Now they were trapped between the three monstrosities.

"Oh, shoot!" Tallon groaned as everyone backed together. "We're surrounded!"

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious!" Wolf growled. "How the hell do we get outta this mess?!"

"Simple," Adder pumped his multi-shot grenade launcher, loading another projectile into the firing mechanism. "The only way to destroy 'em is to make sure nothing's left of 'em."

With that, the serpent fired a grenade toward the earthen creature. However, it launched one of the many stones that composed it toward the grenade, causing it to detonate harmlessly. It then let out a scream as the other started attacking. The soldiers started concentrating their fire on different enemies, slowly chipping them to pieces.

The locust-covered adversary brought its arm back, then swung it forward, letting loose a storm of locusts for the eagle. As tiny insects, the eagle ignored them, concentrating his fire and attention onto the earthen foe, but only then did he notice his fatal error. He paused to reload another clip, then realized the locusts surrounding him had eaten through the shields and were doing the same to his armor. Now, he started swatting at the insects as they started eating away at him, screaming in fear. He panicked so much that he eventually started firing his weapon at the bugs, all of them missing and hitting various targets- trees, sometimes an enemy, the bog…comrades, even. The only thing he succeeded in was aggravating the locusts that they started eating through his helmet, and eventually his head. After a few more seconds, his body- several holes in his head- dropped lifelessly into the swamp, the vile locusts returning to their former master.

Krystal eventually stored enough energy to blow the creature similar to the first one they encountered to nothing more than a pair of legs, but regenerated in a matter of seconds. She only then noticed the creature bending over the eagle's carcass. She became oblivious to everything else as she stared in exasperation at what the creature was doing. It put both of its arm-like branches to the face of the corpse, then ripped the face clean off- even the eyeballs were still attached. The vixen felt queasy and wanted to turn away, but something had put her into some sort of trance and she had to keep watching. As she felt the vomit rise in her throat, the creature applied the face over its mask, which was absorbed on contact. When the creature had finally assimilated the face, lines etched themselves on the bark, forming a two-dimensional face of the eagle- twisted into an expression of purest fear. It then turned to her and let out a bloodcurdling scream similar to that of the eagle's.

"Snap out of it, Krystal!" sound crashed back down on her like a tsunami as she turned back to Fox, shaking her by the shoulders. "Snap out of it!"

"F-Fox…" Krystal stammered. "W-what just-"

"Dangit, Krystal!" Adder shouted from the right, backing away while firing into the earthen creature, "Shut up and keep firing!"

Krystal snapped back into reality and resumed firing, this time, on the tree-like creature. It brought up its arms in an effort to shield itself, then swung them, sending needle-like thorns towards everyone. Shields were bursting as the creature continued the barrage, causing everyone to seek cover. However, one of the canine twins fell to the ground, tripped as the creature lashed out and curled its arm around his leg. While on the ground, the soldier fired at the monster slowly making its way toward him as it merely showered him with thorns. Without the protective cover of his shields, the canine was impaled all over the body as if by a maddened acupuncturist, yelping and writhing from the pain. Krystal found herself again in the sickening trance as the creature ended the soldier's life by impaling him with its branches in the chest. Like its companion, the creature then ripped off the face of the corpse and applied it onto the mask, the bark etched into the screaming expression of the soldier.

This time, Krystal was able to tear herself free of the trance. She chucked a splitter grenade and yelled, "Splitter! Take cover!" As everyone fired the last shot and ducked behind whatever they were using as cover (silently hoping that the shrapnel wouldn't be able to get them), the splitter detonated, sending shrapnel all over the place. After embedding itself into various objects, the shrapnel then produced smaller shrapnel, and the cycle continued on for several more seconds.

After waiting a few moments, Fox asked, "It's over? Is everyone alright?"

Scanning the area a few times, Wolf confirmed, "We're all fine. Plus, it looks like Krystal managed to destroy those things!" An earsplitting scream, recognized as the eagle's, filled the air. "Well, at least one of 'em."

"Alright, everyone," Adder began his order, "when I give the signal, we all fire at it. If you have an explosive, use it if you got it. Wait…get ready…NOW!"

Everyone jumped from their cover…and found nothing, save for the carcasses of the dead, now unrecognizable from the splitter's detonation. The soldiers scanned the area, finding nothing once more.

"It's…gone?" Krystal raised an eyebrow. "For some reason, I honestly can't believe that."

"I think we can all agree," Adder said. "Now let's get moving. Hey, you. You're gonna come with us or not?" Krystal saw the remaining canine kneeling on the ground in front of what appeared to be his twin brother's corpse. She could already feel sorrow consume his mind.

"Th-they killed him," he lamented, tears streaking his face behind the visor, eyes staring into space. "They killed him and ripped his face off. They killed him. Killed him."

"Look, man, just come on," Aloysius went up to him, "War ain't pretty. Get used to it."

"Aloysius, how could you say that?" Cris stared, muzzle wide-open at the armored bat. "He just lost his twin brother- his family member! Don't you feel bad for him?"

"I do," Aloysius spoke, his rough voice gone. "But war is still war. It tears families apart. Sons, fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers…are lost. But we must move on. There's no turning back, and that's how it is."

"They killed him," the canine repeated. "They killed him… Don't you hear me?!" He stood up to face Aloysius, startling everyone. "Can't you at least understand that he's dead? Can you? Don't you have any feelings?! Do you?! Answer me!"

"Look, soldier," Aloysius started, "you've-"

"You don't, do you?" he cried, interrupting his superior. "You have absolutely no feelings for anyone else! They killed him! They killed him, they killed him, they killed him! Those human sons of-"

"That's enough," Adder stepped in, "I know how tough it is to loose a close family member, but-"

"NO!" the soldier yelled. "YOU DON'T, SO SHUT UP! You're just like him!" he pointed at Aloysius, "You snakes are all just like that guy! No sympathy for anyone! You have no feelings for anyone else and your stupid necr-"

Adder seized him by the collar and whispered something into his ear. Krystal tried to hear what he was saying, but she could barely catch anything. The serpent then let go of the canine, who backed away, panting.

"Are you alright, now?" Adder inquired. The canine looked at the remains of his brother, then forced himself to look away. He nodded slowly and the serpent continued, "I know it's tough, but we have to keep moving before that thing comes-" Suddenly, seemingly hundreds of locusts zoomed past them as a collection of brambles and roots formed the creature, the insects swarming around it once more, "- back. Forget what I said and just fire! If you got grenades, use 'em now!"

Krystal reached for her second splitter as the world became a swath of brown as the locusts attacked the group. In small openings, she could see her friends swatting at the insects, trying to keep them away from their armor. It was happening again. _No!_ she thought. _NO! I won't let them die! Not here, not ever!_ Her resolve to protect her friends and family caused her to build up an enormous amount of energy, both hands becoming shrouded by a bright orange aura as fire of the same color poured from her eyes. Her MP-101 was soon disintegrated as the aura intensified, spreading around her body as she brought her arms to her chest, then snapped them open, sending a raging firestorm in a full circle around them. The locusts were reduced to mere cinders, while the shields of her fellow team mates burst, creating bright flashes of light. Meanwhile, the creature, scorched by the fire, was limping away. _You won't get away from me that easily!_ she screamed inside her head. The firestorm, still raging around them, shot for the creature as Krystal swung her hand towards it. With a final scream, it was reduced to ash as the inferno struck it, creating a massive explosion shortly after.

Krystal stumbled as the aura around her faded and her eyes returned to normal. She panted heavily having used up the last of her energy on the pyrokinesis; she was actually smoking from the intense aura that had previously surrounded her. Her sight was reduced to a dot of light as tunnel vision ensued. As she lost consciousness and fell, she could hear Fox screaming her name…

* * *

Krystal regained consciousness in small amounts. One moment, she saw a cloudy late-night sky. The next, she saw what looked like other Lylatians scurrying for her. Finally, the cloudy veil lifted from her mind and she opened her eyes to see Fox crouched over her.

"Are you alright, babe?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she groaned. "Seriously, I'm okay." She looked around. Apparently, she was lying on solid ground on her back, still in the swamp, and there were many other troops walking about, performing their tasks. Both her helmet and his were removed.

"You don't sound 'okay'," Fox replied, the feeling of concern reaching her, "I'm gonna call for evac. You can't fight after what you just did. I didn't even know you could do that kind of stuff, but you're going back."

"Oh, you better believe I can fight," Krystal smiled and got to her feet. "Like I said, I'm okay."

"Krystal, are you sure?" Fox stood up and looked into her eyes, "I don't want you to end up hurt or worse or-"

"Do we have to go through this again like we did before the Anglar War?" Krystal raised her voice slightly.

Fox remained silent for a bit, then said, "Look, Krystal, I'm sor-"

"No," she interrupted, "I should be. I…I didn't mean to say that."

"No, no!" Fox shook his head, then smiled warmly. "It's fine. I won't force you to do it like last time. I just don't want you to, well…you know…" Krystal suddenly embraced him and kissed deeply. Surprised for a moment, Fox returned the kiss, and after a few seconds (and some weird looks from the soldiers walking by), they let go.

"Oh, I'm staying alright," Krystal smiled. "You said it before- we'd always fight together. No matter what."

Fox nodded, "Okay. You've made your choice, then. Go and walk around if you want. We have about twenty minutes before the attack begins."

"What?" Krystal's eyes widened. "Attack? In twenty minutes? But we're nowhere near the district! We're still stuck in this swamp!"

Fox merely pointed behind her. Krystal turned to see that they were at the edge of the swamp's reach. Ahead of them was a large clearing of what looked like gray soil, and looming ahead was a gigantic column of electronic fog.

"Like I said," Fox repeated, "twenty minutes. Do what you want until then, babe."

"Okay, but is everyone else alright?"

"Yeah, even though you practically scorched everyone's armor. I heard from Xamuros that those things we faced earlier are Epitomes of Terrain. He said something about them being one of the more versatile Epitomes, being able to utilize any terrain or feature they've come into contact with, as well as the ability to spawn from anywhere that has earth- including underwater. For some reason, some of them have control over certain insects. Nonanthropomor…por…you get what it mean."

"B-but what about the faces?" Krystal asked.

"They use them like how we eat food. The only way they can survive is if they steal the face of something dead every few hours."

"Well, that's a bit unsettling. So the only way to kill them is to destroy them entirely?"

"Yep," Fox nodded. "That's the only way. Well, I'm gonna go check on the boys. See you in…nineteen minutes."

With that, Fox left her alone. Suddenly, she heard the sloshing of swamp water to her side, and she spun around, teeth bared and hands ready to perform any telekinesis necessary. However, instead of an adversary, a familiar albino pit viper came out of the darkness.

"Hey, Krystal," he smile. "Did I miss anything?"

Krystal sighed in relief, then answered, "The rest of us got shot down, trekked through the swamp, battled some new enemies and I passed out after destroying the last one. Nothing great. You?"

"Eh, bombed the district, got out, landed, went through this blasted swamp, and met a freaky faceless thingamabob before getting here. Not much better."

"Uh…'thingamabob'?" Krystal let out a short giggle.

"Hey, it's a technical term, 'k?" Ace narrowed his eyes slightly. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm gonna run a check over our armor and mechs." He walked away as quickly as he arrived.

Krystal was heading over to Tallon and Marcus when Adder came up to her and asked, "Ah, Krystal, may we speak for just a sec'?"

"Um, sure, Adder," Krystal raised an eyebrow for a moment. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just wondering: Can you remember how you learned telepathy in the first place?"

"Well," Krystal sighed, "I can't really answer that. It just came naturally, I guess."

"Hm," the snake huffed, then spoke in a quiet, serious tone. "And there's something that's been bothering me- Cerinia. I heard that you remember nothing of it?"

Though she didn't want to talk about it, she replied, "No. For some reason, the furthest back I can remember is when I woke up alone on some sort of escape ship as I saw pieces of my planet flying by me. Nothing more." It pained her to speak of it.

Adder remained silent for quite a while, then spoke, "I…see. And you have no memory of your family as well?"

"None. I've tried so hard to remember them, but…but…," Krystal felt a tear streak down her cheek, "I just can't…"

Seeing the tear, Adder cursed, then apologized, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up like that as things are."

"No, it's alright," Krystal replied, smiling weakly. "The only thing I really know is that my home planet was destroyed by…something."

Adder was silent again, then sighed, "I guess many of us here are alike. Many of us have lost much. Fox, Wolf, and Cris lost their parents…Aloysius lost his body…Brutus and Ace have lost many things to war and discrimination…Panther lost his wife…and you and I have lost our homes and families…Again, I'm sorry about bringing the subject up.

"I just…I also wanted to talk about how…Uh, you know…You see, I sorta…Oh, never mind." The snake strode away.

Krystal's eyes remained fixed on the serpent. While he talked to her, it seemed that he was hiding something. But yet…somehow, that expression seemed familiar and…Suddenly, it hit her. She smiled as Cris walked up to her, confirming her theory.

As the white-furred kitsune opened her muzzle to speak, Krystal spoke first, "Let me guess- there's something between you and Adder."

Cris' muzzle remained open for a few seconds, her face turning a light shade of red, and she asked, "How'd you guess?"

"Just putting two and two together. So…what's up?"

"I just wanted to say…," she began, but Krystal already knew what was coming, "I…I think I sorta…like him…but…I don't know if he…well…likes me, you know?"

"Is that so?" Krystal smiled. "I felt the same way with Fox before we got married."

"So…can you tell?"

"Oh yeah," Krystal looked back at Adder, who just shook a sleeping soldier awake. "I can tell he likes you. Thing is, he's not showing it." The serpent was now yelling his head off at the soldier, who scurried off after a bit, tripping, then scurrying back to his feet.

"I can't tell whether that's a good thing or bad thing," Cris scratched her head. "Can you?"

Krystal merely shrugged, "The thing about love is sometimes it hits a straight as can be, and other times, it blooms slowly. It'll take time, but don't worry."

"Thanks, Krystal," Cris smiled. "Uh…I gotta get going…" Krystal sighed happily as she heard a faint "Yes!" coming from Cris shortly after she left her.

Just as she once again tried to get to her sons, she heard some shouting coming from the mess tent and ran over there. Once she reached the tent, she saw the same canine from earlier exchanging blows with a fur de lance. Just as she herself was about to intervene, Panther came and got between them.

"Hold it!" he yelled. The canine tried to get around the wildcat and resume the fistfight, but Panther picked him up by the collar, lifting him off the ground, "I said hold it!"

Adder came in as Panther released his grip on the two, "What's the problem here, soldiers?" When neither answered, he asked, "Are you two waiting for an invitation? I asked 'What's the problem here'?!"

"That snake cut in front of me!" the canine half-shouted, pointing at the fur de lance.

"Eres loco!" the other aggressor replied in a mix of English and Fortunan (to the readers, think Spanish), "I no cut tú in line por cena, comandante!"

"Enough," Panther growled. "So maybe he _did_ cut in front of you," he motioned at the fur de lance. "Does that give you the right to start a fistfight?"

"That dang SOB deserved it!" the canine growled. "He deserved it like the low-life he is! He's like the rest of 'em, never changing their dirty ways and-"

"That was uncalled for," Adder spoke. Krystal could tell he was struggling to keep his temper at bay as he stepped over to him, "I will not take discrimination of any sort under my command. Dismissed, you two. And you," he pointed at the canine as he marched off, "this is the second offense already. One more time, and I'll kick you back down to buck private."

As the canine walked away, an expression of rage on his face, Krystal asked the fur de lance, "Are you alright?"

"I okay," the serpent responded, "Es nada."

"Wait," Panther looked back at the snake. "Jorge?"

"Ah, Panther!" Jorge smiled, "¿Como está usted?"

"Estoy bien, amigo," Panther then turned to Krystal. "Ah, hello there, Krystal. This is Jorge. We were good friends at the Academy. He was also at the battle when we were at Venom!"

"Hello, comandante" Jorge greeted her. "Ah, still working on that stupid ingles!"

"Subsistencia que trabajas en ello," Panther replied. "Lo conseguirás. Hasta luego, amigo."

"¡Igualmente, amigo!" the serpent got back in line.

Krystal was left a little confused by the foreign language. Seeing this, Panther chuckled, "Yeah, it's a little hard to understand, I know. But, jeez, I thought all that discrimination was over."

"Me too," Krystal sighed. "As things are, hopefully it'll stop soon."

"I wouldn't count on it," Panther shook his head. "You can change laws to make everyone equal under it, but you can't change the minds of those who discriminate."

"Mom!" Krystal turned to see Marcus running up to her. "Glad I found you! The charge's gonna start in a few minutes!"

"You heard the boy!" Panther yelled to everyone else. "I don't care if you haven't got a bite to eat (Jorge stamped his foot onto the ground hearing this), I don't care if your conversations aren't over with friends or family (now Krystal grimaced), but we gotta move! Get your stuff and get into position!"

"So much for family talk." Krystal grumbled to herself and headed for the charging position.

* * *

I love coming up with new enemies. Can't you tell? =P

Anyways, this is part 2 of 4 of Chapter 14. Other than showcasing the new Epitome of Terrain, I suddenly remembered something while writing this. It was that _I hadn't displayed almost any form of discrimination against snakes,_ even though it's one of the main reasons why my serpentine characters continue to go to war. So, that's where the canine comes in. And I also get to show off myself as a polyglot again. =P

Polyglot is such a fun word to say! Wouldn't you agree? XD

Read and review people, read and review!


	28. Chapter 14, Part 3: Into the Maw of the

Chapter 14, Part 3: Into the Maw of the Beast

Krystal stood at the edge of the swamp with the rest of the division. Flanking her sides were the rest of the team members, Lylatian soldiers, Spades, an assortment of different mechs, Landmasters, hover tanks, and SDFK armored hovercars. The vixen unholstered her new weapon, a Metal Storm MK III. While it did have the appearance of a pistol, the barrel had been extended to about a foot long in order to accommodate the six miniature barrels inside of the weapon. Simply said, it was the fastest-firing pistol ever created, with a firing rate of fifty-two rounds…per second. Precision was a big problem if not fired in short bursts, but where it lacked accuracy, it made up in sheer firepower, especially now that she had attached a laser cartridge to it in place of a bullet clip.

Something squeezed her hand, and she looked down to see Fox's hand over hers. She looked into his face and smiled.

Xamuros climbed onto a large boulder and called out, "Alright, everyone, listen up! Our mission today is obviously to blow that stinking district sky high!" He emphasized this by pointing with an arm towards the towering plume of electronic fog, beams of planetary energy firing into the atmosphere. "We're going in with mech and armor support, but this isn't going to be easy. After running a scan on the area, it's now apparent that they have all sorts of traps in that fog. Concertina wire, mines, artillery bunkers, pillboxes, and heavy DEB cannon emplacements await us before we even get _inside_ the district. We also have news of air support.

"In order to effectively get inside, we're going to need some help. That's where our mechs come in. Our long range mechs will provide us with cover from its rockets and arc laser shots. After they've soften up the enemy a bit, the melee mechs will charge in first to clear as much of the way as possible, followed by our heavy weapons and assault mechs as fighter mechs destroy other emplacements they might've missed. Anti-aircraft mechs will clear the skies of air units. After that, wait until after I give the word to charge in. Then, we-"

He was interrupted as a drop of water splattered just over his shields, creating a small shimmer. Everyone, including the mechs, craned their necks upwards to see the drop joined by dozens more, which eventually added into a downpour complete with crackling thunder overhead.

The golden Spade cursed, then roared, "Of all the times it could've- Argh! To hell with the weather! As I was saying, after we get inside the district, I want everyone to start destroying as many facilities as possible. We already have dozens of demolition teams on standby, but I want you to cover them! No explosives means no destruction! Guard them carefully as they do their job!"

The Spade made a whine that sounded much like a sigh, "Look…I've fought with many of you people for the past few months. Even though some of us aren't yet comfortable with being allied, we've been through many battles. We have our differences; we have our doubts. Some of you Lylatians may doubt our loyalties for the fact that we were once human. Some of my brothers out there doubt if our alliance will grant us the freedom we desire. Well, forget those differences! Banish those doubts! Each of you are soldiers in the war against the terror that threatens the entire universe, and I am proud to fight alongside each and every one of you soldiers! We shall fight as one, and we will repay the humans for their misdeeds!" A chorus of cheers broke out, and Xamuros spun his diamond-shaped head around.

He waved an arm, silencing everyone, then ordered, "All mechs, prepare yourselves. Long range mechs, release rocket locks and prepare to fire." Mechs of all sorts unraveled themselves from their transportation modes and shifted into a ready stance. Long range mechs adjusted their rechargeable rocket launchers to their designated angles and raised their arc laser cannons. Tension reached its peak as every Lylatian, Spade, and mech braced themselves for the imminent order- ready to make the charge and sacrifice themselves for a greater good. As soon as backblast smoke and flashes of light filled the darkness along other parts of the swamp's edge, Xamuros yelled, "OPEN FIRE!!!"

With a multitude of glorious screams complimented by arc laser _twizz_es, the long range mechs opened fire, sending rockets and lasers high, and backblast smoke down low. As the projectiles and lasers streaked for their targets, aided by myriad more from the surrounding companies and divisions, chaff charges were launched into the air by the humans' missile defense systems. Sharp pieces of metal scattered into the sky, sparkling like fireworks before they caused the premature detonation of the rockets before their intended target. However, the majority of the rockets and the remainder of the arc lasers rained like a furious hailstorm over the district's outer defenses, sending plumes of violent orange outwards, dulled by the electronic fog.

"Remaining land-based mechs, CHARGE!" the bionic field master screamed. "All remaining units, wait for my signal!" Even as he roared the order, the melee, heavy weapons, assault, and anti-aircraft mechs were already charging for the towering curtain of fog. The melee mechs had already activated their head-turret shields as they neared the gray gas. Artillery fire, machine guns, mines, and directed energy beams created a daunting array of explosions and puffs of soil. Explosions ensued as some of the mechs were slaughtered before their targets were reached. DE beams streaked from above, confirming the presence of air support. They weren't the only ones exploding, however, as destruction on the humans' side was clearly visible.

"Fighter mechs!" Xamuros pointed at the quadruped machinations. "Take flight and destroy all hostiles you can find!" One of them, a commander, nodded to the rest, and they leapt into the air, shifting into their aerial form, speeding off for the killzone. Now, more explosions took place along the ground as well as in the air as flak and tracer fire kicked in.

"Infantry and armor," Xamuros spread out his arms, visually telling them to wait, "prepare yourselves…" Krystal crouched down low, ready to sprint as far as her legs would carry her. The field master waited for several seconds, waiting for the right moment when-

Columns of smoke rose through the fog, causing everyone to look high. Xamuros cursed, realizing what they were, "Incoming missiles! Long range mechs, keep moving to dodge enemy fire! The rest of you, CHARGE!" With that, he converted into the Longsword hovercraft and zoomed off as surrounding Spades did the same. Krystal kicked off, sending her into a sprint across the colorless soil with the rest of the troops, letting out a furious, boisterous rebel yell as they charged for the city. As the missiles exploded behind them, the rest of the divisions did the same. If one looked down on the district from just beneath the clouds, that individual could see a dark stain spreading from the swamp for the gray curtain of electronic fog.

Adrenaline and fear rushed into Krystal's head as dull flashes and booms were seen and heard in the murky veil, followed by angry whistles as artillery cannons started shelling the charging soldiers, causing everyone to scatter.

"Spread out!" she heard Wolf call out somewhere behind her. "I don't want to loose a whole squad to a single arty shell!" As the soldiers started moving apart, the machine guns and plasma MG nests fired into the incoming soldiers. An artillery shell landed right in back of Krystal, sending her into the ground.

After blacking out for a moment, she opened her eyes to an unfocused, hazy world. Weapon fire whizzed past her, barely audible over the unearthly ring in her ears. She looked up to see Aloysius run past her. Looking back, he stopped, returned to her, and heaved her up. As the ringing turned into a strange mix of the sounds around her, Aloysius seemed to be screaming something at her. Too dazed to understand a single word, he shook her vigorously, causing the dull mix of sounds to intensify into a roar.

"…on! Come on!" the armored bat yelled. "Get moving, on the double!"

With that, he pushed Krystal forward, and she sheepishly went back into a run. Though still dazed from the artillery explosion, reality came back to her as she gazed upon the living hell around her. Many of the charging soldiers were being slaughtered already. An artillery shot exploded right on top of a soldier, causing him to disintegrate into a spray of blood, as well as causing the soldier nearby to stagger before resuming the charge. Another was hit by concentrated machine gun fire, bursting his shields and causing his body to jerk with each shot thereafter as he was torn apart into gory pieces. A cannon fired right through the body of a helpless soldier, causing him to explode into pieces, his head, eyes staring into space forevermore, landing right in front of Krystal, who hastily jumped over it, the remains of her bagel rising in her throat.

The vixen struggled to keep her sanity in the midst of such madness and horror. She looked away from a helpless soldier blasted backwards by a DEB cannon emplacement, shifting her gaze to see the soldier next to her become gutted by the armor-piercing rounds of the MG pillboxes. Krystal stared with unseeing eyes- eyes clouded by the horror around her- and kept running with the hope of not ending up like the soldiers around her. No matter where she looked, there was always a soldier dying a cruel, horrible death. Even if she looked upwards, a body would sometimes be tossed into view like a ragdoll by artillery shells or mines.

If what she saw was madness and horror back outside, it now turned into absolute despair once she entered the fog and the filter equipment kicked in. Her visor now displayed the world in slightly dulled colors and was limited to about the length of two basketball courts. Unfortunately, it still allowed her to see the remains of the Lylatians that had ran in front of her now lay strewn alongside the remains of Spades and mechs. Some died missing half their bodies or more. Others exhaled their last breath with an arm outstretched for the district, a goal they would never be able to accomplish. Many still lay facing the heavens, eyes locked in an endless stare for the skies, mouths open without a breath. Two bodies had clasped hands together as they spent the last seconds of their lives with their friend- their comrade. Tears began to cloud the vixen's vision. _So many deaths_…, she lamented.

Artillery and anti-personnel machine gun and plasma fire had decreased as the flood of soldiers finally destroyed the last of them. Krystal took the time to fall to her knees and take a breather. Never had she seen such violence- such brutality. Had it escalated because of how desperate both sides were now? Probably. The Lylatians and their allies were fighting an enemy that was running out of options. And-

"Get on your feet," She looked with glassy eyes to see Aloysius, "or do you want to break down before we reach the district?"

Krystal, without a word, stood back up and continued onwards for the city. Even though the outside defenses had crumbled, gunfire could be heard in the distance, most likely in the facility district.

As they jogged along, Aloysius took a look at her and sighed. He spoke in a strangely gentle voice, "Terrible, isn't it? It's like battles like these when you realize what war really is. People die all around you, and there is nothing that can be done about it. Wanting to help the dying is only going to make you feel worse, Krystal. I know it sounds cruel, but we must move on."

"Yes…," she replied slowly, "you're right…"

Krystal, Aloysius, and many surviving troops waited on the outskirts of town, where a thick wall of concrete separated them from the inside and the rest of the divisions. As the armor columns finally made it to the wall, they merely opened fire on it, breaking the once-mighty wall down to chunks of debris.

Krystal dashed through the smoking rubble and into the district. Bullets and plasma were already streaming from dug-in enemy humans into the shields of the Lylatians and their armored vehicles. A SDFK sped ahead of the enemy's cover, blasting them into bits with its autocannon.

Adder came into view and shouted, "Everyone! Get with a demo team and blow up some facilities! No explanation needed- now move!"

Everything was happening so fast that Krystal was left slightly dazed. Soldiers, supporting armored units, and mechs were scrambling all over the place, trying to get with a demo team and start destroying facilities. She felt something on her shoulder, causing her to jump in surprise. She turned her head to see Fox, with a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright, Krystal?" he asked. His eyes were as glassy as hers. He had seen the same things she had.

"I-I'm going to be alright," she managed to say, "but where's Marcus and Tallon?"

"With each other and Brutus. They'll be fine."

The vixen sighed in relief, "Okay…okay, then. So I guess we're going together again?"

Fox cracked a weak smile, "Yeah, I guess so. Come on, let's get going before all the demo teams are-"

Both of them dropped into a crouch as the nearest siphoning facility was blown apart. When the explosion subsided, all that was left was the burning bottom half of the facility and the demo team, formed of two Lylatians and a Spade.

"-are all gone," Fox finished. "Let's go!"

As they ran for the demo team now heading for the next facility, Aloysius came from behind them and yelled, "Hey! Wait up! Wait up!"

Both the engineers and the kitsune couple stopped. Krystal asked, "Aloysius, why aren't you with a group?" He just stood there, letting her remember just what he was. "Oh, never mind, then. Well, we're open!"

"Right, then," the bat nodded, speaking in his ordinary, rough voice. He heaved up his weapons- a rocket launcher in the left arm and a laser assault rifle in the right. "Let's get it done."

Krystal cocked her Metal Storm and headed with everyone else. They didn't have to go too far to get to another facility- only the length equal to two city blocks. The squad divided into two groups and got on either side of the blast door that served as the facility's entrance. One engineer, a burly crocodile, reached for his back and pulled out a handheld DEB cannon. He started it up with a whine as the main barrel, with all of its protrusions, started spinning around and electrical streaks flew between them. He fired the beam at the door, slowly shearing a rectangle into it and sending sparks everywhere, dancing on the ground before burning out in the rain-drenched earth. Once the rectangle was finished, the sides red-hot, he whipped the cannon's stock at the door, causing it to collapse inwards as he leapt out of the way. As any experienced soldier would have predicted, weapon fire erupted from the inside, halting as they realized no one was there. Krystal took out a splitter grenade- one she had restocked on before the charge- pulled off the pin with the sight of her Metal Storm, counted in her head _one-one-thousand_, and threw it inside.

The squad backed as far away as they could from the door as the lethal grenade detonated. The initial detonation was followed by dozens more- sometimes overlapping each other- as were several cries from the humans inside. As the last clinking of the microshrapnel faded, the six-man squad headed inside, sweeping their weapons side-to-side as they scanned the room for any more hostiles. Finding nothing other than the gory remains of the humans caught in the splitter's explosions, they headed deeper inside, eventually entering the familiar room that was dominated by the cylindrical machine siphoning energy from the planet.

While the second engineer, a brown stallion, began setting up the small, albeit powerful explosive, everyone else got into tactical positions around the room, ready to defend the engineers if an enemy arrived. After about eighteen seconds, the engineer had finished linking the bomb with a wireless detonator; he made a thumbs-up, signaling everyone to get out of the facility.

After everyone sprinted outside, the equine pressed two buttons on the side of the remote detonator, causing the top part of it to rise upwards before he smashed it down with his open palm. A fantastic roar occurred as the facility exploded, causing the wet earth to tremble.

Allowing no time to rest, the group made their way through puddle-filled streets for the next facility. After reaching it, the crocodilian seared another rectangle into the door of the facility, kicked it, and ran away as Aloysius cooked then chucked a frag grenade. After the shower of deadly metal ended, the group hurried inside, Fox shooting the sole survivor in the head with his blaster pistol before continuing inwards to the siphoning chamber.

Everyone else got into their old positions again as the stallion began setting up the bomb, taking one from his crocodilian friend. This time, a large squad of humans entered the facility…but there was a strange, new kind of soldier with them.

Unlike the biogenetically-altered Hunters or shock troopers, this one was still human, based on its body structure. However, unlike the rest of the human soldiers, which usually wore standard body armor with goggles and a helmet, this one wore a strange type of grayish body armor and a weird type of cloak around it. Instead of a pair of goggles and a helmet, his head was completely obscured behind a full-head helmet that was reminiscent of a shock trooper's, though of a different design. A small radar dish was located on the right side of the helmet, and on the other, a single-eye night vision scope next to one of the helmet's dark, half-circle eyeholes. Over the mouth and nose area was a triangular extension with three slits at the top, probably to allow his voice through. The thing that caught everyone's eye was the massive weapon he was holding- about three-quarters of it (from the stock to the beginning of the barrel) looked like a pump-action shotgun, but after the barrel began was what looked like a set of three tri-barreled chainguns on a rotating disk.

This new soldier made strange gestures to the other around him, and they dispersed into the room, taking cover behind the many computer desks and machinery. Krystal started firing on a nearby desk with her Metal Storm, sending a spray of splinters all over the place from the multitude of lasers it generated before breaching the other side and killing the regular human soldier hiding behind it. Fox chucked an explosive grenade into the middle of three desks; the explosion following killed two of the humans and sent the other backwards, where Aloysius pummeled him with lasers. The Spade leapt to the right side of the chamber and cleaved a desk in two before blowing the human behind it to pieces with a Jackhammer burst. The crocodile used his SMG to pockmark the machinery a human was hiding behind with holes, causing him to sprint for better cover, staying low as he dashed.

Just then, Krystal realized something. "Wait!" she screamed. "Where's that other soldier?" Everyone turned to see the new trooper about fifteen feet away from the engineer now scrambling to get away from him. Krystal and Aloysius began pumping lasers into the soldier, which only sizzled against the armor of the new enemy type. He then lifted up his gigantic shotgun and pulled the trigger.

Three simultaneous blasts went off- each sounding like an individual shotgun. The horse was literally blown apart- it didn't even matter that he had his shields at maximum or that he was at least twenty-five feet away- he was simply reduced into a bloody mess of torn limbs and guts. After the death of the first engineer, the soldier pumped his shotgun, sending three soda-can sized shells to the floor and rotating the next set of barrels into place.

_Holy crap,_ Krystal thought, emphasizing each syllable in her mind.

After dispatching the remaining soldiers, everyone else concentrated their fire on the new threat, keeping mobile as to avoid the stallion's fate. The trooper took aim at Fox, who performed a sideways combat roll just as the strange machine next to him was riddled with several dozen bullets in one shot, causing it to fall on its side. This caused a pipe overhead to rupture, pouring a small amount of steam into the room below.

The soldier pumped the oversized shotgun again and fired again at Fox, nimbly dodging the majority of the shots, though three rounds impacted against him, causing the light screen shields to block the bullets. _Fox can't keep dodging those shots forever, _Krystal gaped, then gritted her teeth. _I'm not going to let him kill my husband!_

A white aura now surrounding her left fist, she snapped it open, sending streaks of electricity crackling along the soldier's length. He cried out as the electrocution continued, coming to an abrupt end as Aloysius fired his a rocket into him, sending him sideways into the wall.

To everyone's surprise, the soldier slowly got back to his feet with no sign of damage, only a grunt revealing his soreness. He heaved up his colossal shotgun once more and took aim at Aloysius now, realizing the threat he was. The human fired with a thunderous roar, knocking Aloysius backwards into a desk, bursting his shields but not injuring him. The bat merely got to his feet and ran for the trooper, who was firing as many rounds as he could into the charging demon. The armored Lylatian finally reached the soldier, tackling into him and sending them both into the ground, their weapons flying away from their owners.

As everyone else waited for an opening to shoot, Aloysius heaved back a fist, then slugged the human's helmet, breaking off pieces of it, revealing his left eye. The Spade, first to react to the opening, fired a precise trio of Daggerblade rounds into the gaping hole. Three spurts of blood gushed out, and the human lay still.

Aloysius got to his feet, growling, "What the hell is this guy?" while kicking the corpse.

"I have no information on this new soldier type, sir," the Spade answered. "It must have been recently brought into service if I have no information regarding it. As far as I can tell, it must be some sort of human commando, seeing how it gave orders to the others."

"That didn't really help," Aloysius spread out his arms before picking up his weapons. "So is anyone going to set up the bomb, or what?"

The crocodile jumped when he said that, and immediately began working on activating the bomb and linking it to the detonator.

"Fox," Krystal went up to the orange vulpine, breathing heavily, "are you alright?"

"Yeah," he replied, "the shields took the damage. And Aloysius, if we meet any more of these guys, you're gonna take him down, alright?"

"Heh, you know it," the bat huffed as he shoved another rocket down the tube of the launcher, slung it onto his back, and picked up his assault rifle.

"But still," the Spade mused aloud, "that armor was tougher than anything I've ever seen. Not even an Alpha mech could've withstood a rocket."

"You think plasma would have an effect on it?" Fox asked. "If it works on Aloysius (the bat sighed a little), it might have an effect on those commandos."

"Let's find out," Krystal picked up a fallen human's plasma rifle and fired into the corpse of the commando. It jerked as the bolts passed through the armor.

"It works," Aloysius nodded, then snatched the plasma rifle right out of Krystal's hand, ripped out the charge, and replaced the laser charge with the plasma core. "I guess after seeing me in action, they musta wanted to make copies of me!"

"I'm sure that's it," Fox rolled his eyes. "At any rate, is that bomb finished?"

"Yes, sir!" the crocodile ran past them, yelling as he did, "Now I suggest that we all get the heck out of here!"

Krystal ran after the engineer and back into the fog and rain outside, as did everyone else. Only then did the amphibious Lylatian expose the detonator and mash it down, causing the facility to explode into a shower of debris and fire, which was slowly extinguished by the rain. Smoke rushed outwards from the entrance they had used, clouding everyone's vision for a moment.

Once the smoke dissipated, Krystal looked at the rest of the district. Through the electronic fog filter, she could see many more columns of smoke rising from the facilities in the distance- each of them another vanquished vampire.

Suddenly the radio inside the blue kitsune's helmet cracked to life, "Commander McBannon to all troops, Commander McBannon to all troops! There's only a handful of siphoning facilities left in the district! All demo teams with explosives proceed for them! Everyone else that doesn't have explosives, sweep the district and make sure _every_ enemy soldier is taken care of. In order to make an effective sweep, I'd like to ask for the each sweep squad to split into two-man groups, if possible. Search every street for signs of activity. We're almost done here, soldiers. Stay on the ball, and make sure that no hostiles are let in this district. Over and out."

After the radios silenced themselves, Fox asked the crocodile, "So, do you have anymore?"

"'Anymore' what, sir?" he asked in response.

"Explosives- do you have any bombs left?"

"No, sir. Each engineer was given one explosive. I just used mine."

"Alright, so how do we split up?" Aloysius inquired. "There's…two, three, four…five of us. It ain't even! We've got one man too many!"

Suddenly, the crocodile's body went rigid with a _zfft_, and everyone looked to see a quarter-inch hole right between his eyes before he collapsed backwards to the ground.

As Krystal began seeking cover she yelled, "You just _had_ to say it didn't you, Aloysius? You just _had_ to say it!"

"How was I supposed to know that sniper was there?!" Aloysius called back, then flinched as the sniper shot at his helmet…causing the round to shatter harmlessly against it.

"Probably because you don't have to worry about them, sir!" the Spade said  
as-a-matter-of-factly after seeking refuge behind a piece of metal from the facility they just destroyed.

"Dangit, we're pinned down now," Fox grimaced behind a destroyed hovercar. "Hold on, I've got an idea…"

"Helmet on a rifle?" Aloysius asked.

"Helmet on a metal pipe," he shook his head, "but close enough. Oldest trick in the book."

Fox pulled off his helmet and placed it on a pipe lying nearby. He then held the pipe at the other end and held it up so that his helmet was exposed. However, instead of shooting the helmet like planned, the sniper shot through the hovercar at Fox instead. A small amount of blood flew from Fox's head and he fell to the ground.

Krystal shrieked, "FOX! NO!"

"Babe, babe," he held up a hand, "I'm fine! He only got my ear!" She looked to see that part of his left ear had been shot at, only grazed by the bullet.

"Y'know," Aloysius sighed, "I think the oldest trick in the book just got a _little_ too old."

"It's all good, though," Fox smiled as he squirted some medical foam onto the small indent in his ear, and then replaced his helmet. "I already know where he is." With that, the vulpine leader charged his blaster and fired slightly to his right. A small sizzle was heard a second later.

"Did you get him?" Krystal asked. Suddenly, the Spade next to them was shot in the head, though not fatally.

"No, he didn't ma'am," the Spade got to his feet. "We gotta get going! He's moving around now!"

Krystal leapt to her feet to get out of the area, but something made her stop. She squinted her eyes to catch a faint glimmer like that of light reflecting off of glass. Namely, the glass of the sniper's scope. Smiling, she let a small, white aura shimmer around her index and middle finger, then pointed both at the shimmer and let a streak of lightning out. The shimmer fell to the ground, and didn't move.

"What was that all about?!" Aloysius stared at her.

"I got him," she grinned, "that's what that was all about."

"Are you _absolutely_ sure?"

"I'm posit-"

At that exact moment, the Spade's head shattered into pieces, sending a mix of oil and blood outwards.

"Shoot!" Fox yelped. "Run for it!"

Krystal sprinted as fast as she could with the other two, trying to get as far away from the sniper as possible. Strangely, though, the sniper didn't fire at the group after they ran. The vixen contemplated over this before the group took cover in a small alleyway formed by two adjacent siphoning facilities, both destroyed.

"Is it just me, or did that sniper stop shooting at us after we ran?" she asked, clutching her side from the long run.

"It wasn't you," Fox answered. "I don't know why, but he let us go."

"Let's see," Aloysius panted, leaning against the side of the alley's way for support, "the only reasons that he would've let us go were that he got tired, ran out of ammo, which I highly doubt; had immediate threats in the area, wanted to try and cut us off after we stop, or…"

"Or…" Krystal repeated, trying to coax the answer out of him.

"Or we were heading into a place where there'd be others to finish us off."

"Oh, please," Fox began shaking his head, "do _not_ jinx it! Do _not_ jinx it!" Krystal looked up and gaped, as did Fox.

Aloysius looked at both for a few seconds before sighing, "Don't tell me. There's something behind me." The wedded couple nodded.

The armored bat turned to see an Epitome of Terrain behind him. Apparently, this one had absorbed the qualities of a metallic floor, as it shone with a brilliant sheen whenever lightning flashed overhead. It lifted up its arm, which sharpened itself into something resembling an extremely sharp broadsword.

"Somehow, I thought something like that was there," he backed away, then broke into a run. "Come on! Let's get outta here!"

Needing no encouragement, the two kitsunes followed him towards the back of the alleyway. Before they reached it, a series of tremors rocked the ground as two earthen Epitomes of Terrain barred them from the exit. They glanced back to see the metallic one blocking their remaining path, a spiked sphere formed in its other arm now. The sound of cocking weapons sounded from above, and the Lylatians looked to see four human commandos standing on ledges on the siphoning facilities taking aim at them with their triple tri-barreled shotguns.

"Charles," one of the commandos spoke into a radio, "nice job spotting them. I'm givin' you a well-deserved promotion after this," He now spoke to the Lylatians now, "Hello there. It seems you three are eagerly awaited as prisoners by the Lord. However, there are no orders on whether you Lylatians are wanted dead or alive, so I'll make it simple. Stand down, and we'll just take you prisoner. If you don't or if you fight back, we'll have no choice but to open fire on you and let the Epitomes have a nice snack on your faces. I'm giving you an easy choice- surrender and live or fight and die. What'll it be?"

"What else?" Krystal smiled, reaching for her back with her free hand. Seeing this, the humans fired and the Epitomes of Terrain lunged for them. Time seemed to slow as she whipped out her gold-colored staff, embroidered with ancient runes. One end of the staff was a sharp, orange crystal point, while the other had an ovular extension with a smaller, ovular, blue gem in the center. The moment she extended her staff, two, curved pieces of metal detached from the ovular tip and hovered an inch away while staying parallel to the curves.

The blue vulpine stabbed the pointed tip of her staff into the ground, producing a bluish veil of energy that absorbed the commandos' shots and sent the Epitomes of Terrain backwards for a yard or two with screams of surprise. As Fox and Aloysius stared in amazement at what she was doing, she magnified the energy being outputted, causing the veil of energy to turn a dark, violet color before she released it in a pulse of energy. The humans cried out as the pulse pummeled into them, wrapping around their bodies as it went past them and obliterated them into mere particles. The Epitomes went down in a similar way, letting out a dying scream before becoming erased from the world.

Krystal twirled the staff around her wrist a few times, then sheathed it on her back once more as she turned to the other two. Seeing that they were just gaping and staring at her, she asked a simple, "What?"

"'What'?!" Aloysius parroted. "'What?!' That was the coolest, most freakin' awesome thing I've ever seen!"

"Come now," Krystal playfully waved down with her hand, "you're flattering me."

"Uh, Krystal?" Fox crossed his arms. "How come you can do that, and I can't? The shield, I get, but covering more than one person and then using it as a weapon…"

"Simple," Krystal explained. "Because I am the staff's rightful owner, I have complete dominion over it. Basically, it means that it trusts me enough to allow me to tap into itsstrongest powers."

"But I've never _ever_ seen you do that kind of stuff! And what do you mean by trust?"

"In response to your comment, I didn't really need to use it before, or I lacked the energy to do so. In response to your question, it's a little hard to explain. These types of staffs aren't just mere tools or weapons- they are the closest an inanimate object can be to living. It has feelings- it knows whether it's in the hands of its owner, it knows what kind of person is holding it, and it's aware of everything that's going on around it."

"That just sounds weird," said Aloysius. "How can a staff feel or know?"

Krystal answered by whipping it out and holding it so that it was parallel to the ground. She dropped it, and as the staff fell, it whipped itself around and planted its tip into the earth, then extended.

"Okay…" Aloysius looked at it, then her, "I believe you now. Wait, when did the subject switch to slightly-living staffs? We gotta get movin'!"

_Well, so much for a little downtime,_ Krystal thought before walking along with the other two. It was only after sweeping the rest of the street when the ground began to tremble.

"Uh…did it just-" Krystal began.

"Oh, yeah," Fox answered her question. "Get ready for more Epitomes of Terrain."

"Lovebirds," Aloysius was looking in the opposite direction, his neck craned upwards, "I hate to tell you guys that whatever's causing it ain't Epitomes of Terrain."

"What're you-" Fox stopped mid-sentence to see what Aloysius was looking at. Krystal, with a sigh, dared to look as well…and jumped as a gigantic metallic leg landed right in front of them, causing everyone to crane their necks skyward. Above them was the five-legged juggernaut tank, armed with disintegrator rays. At the moment, it was heading towards the center of the district.

"Okay, guys," whispered Aloysius, "if we remain quiet and move as quickly as we can, we might be able to get away before it notices us…" Suddenly, a shout came from within one of the many closed plasma turret windows lining the five-story tall tank.

"You really have a habit of jinxing things, don't you?" Krystal shot a fierce glance at Aloysius, as the doors on the plasma turrets' windows opened up.

* * *

Part 3 of 4 for chapter 14. For this installment, I was aiming for a more emotional feel to it, especially with the charging scene with all the horrible deaths. Up to this point, I've just shown gruesome deaths to be one of the horrors of war, so here... I wanted to show some emotional feedback from the living. You'll see more of this later, especially in the sequel.

Other than that, just your typical installment. Even though it has still another new enemy type. =P Chain-shotguns FTW!

In all seriousness, I hope you guys are enjoying my fic so far. We're getting close, with only a small amount of installments left! Read and review, everyone!


	29. Chapter 14, Part 4: Great Victory, Heavy

Chapter 14, Part 4: Great Victory, Heavy Loss

Krystal, Fox, and Aloysius scattered as some of the juggernaut tank's plasma turrets opened fire on them. The blue vixen was able to get underneath the towering tank, ready to fire into the delicate underside, but she gasped in horror as she discovered that the humans had fixed this design flaw by attaching some sort of metal grating over it.

"Guys!" she yelled to the other two. "Get under here! It can't hit us here!"

Fox and Aloysius sprinted underneath the tank with her, weaving through a web of plasma fire before reaching the destination. Once they all got there, they moved forward while remaining in the tank's blind spot.

"Heh," Aloysius gave a short laugh, "who would've thought that the humans were dumb enough to leave a huge blind spot under this huge thing."

"Yeah," Fox bit his lip, "but knowing the humans, they'll probably have it revised sooner or later. So where do you figure this thing's going?"

"Hell, I dunno," Aloysius shrugged, "but Ace's probably seen better days if he missed this thing on his bombing run!"

"I doubt that's the case," Krystal shook her head. "Aloysius, can you hit the gravlift with your rocket launcher?"

Not even replying, the armored bat reached onto his back and pulled out the launcher. With one arm, he took aim at the center of the tank and fired. The rocket screamed for the grating before detonating on impact. When the smoke cleared a few seconds thereafter, the grating didn't have a single scratch on it. He looked back at her expectantly.

"So what's the plan now?" he asked gruffly. "We can't get at its weak spot!"

"Then we're just going to have to do it the hard way," Fox stowed his weapons and looked at Aloysius, "Throw me."

"Fox," he replied, "the moment I get into a position to throw, they'll have me burned to a crisp with their plasma turrets. I can't do anything for squat!"

"Plasma!" Krystal screamed, "Aloysius, fire your assault rifle into it!"

Getting the idea, he replaced his rocket launcher on his back and fired near the front of the tank with his plasma assault rifle…which penetrated into the hull, but with no effect.

Fox raised an eyebrow, "I don't think it worked. Hold on, let me check something…" He tapped his tactical helmet a few times, causing his transparent visor to change to a reddish color before continuing, "Dangit! They've got some wood in between the plates of armor!"

"Leave it to the humans to think of everything but a blind spot," Aloysius growled…just as one of the disintegrator ray stalks looped downwards underneath the tank. "…I really gotta stop doin' that. RUN!"

Krystal rolled forward into a prone position as the yellow D-ray erupted from vertebrae-like stalk with a high-pitched gasp. The ground where she stood earlier was now a scar in the wet earth. Steam rose from the ground after such an intense blast of heat. Using the smokescreen (or "steamscreen"), Krystal got out of the stalk's way, which fired blindly into the gas. At this moment, she was wondering why humans went to such great lengths to create artificial electronic fog and a way to see through it without even developing something as simple as to look through steam.

"What now?" Aloysius roared. "If we stay here, we'll get disintegrated! If we go outside, we'll get spotted by those plasma turrets!"

"Personally," Fox yelled over the gasp of the D-rays, "I'd take plasma over disintegration! Run for it!"

Krystal crouched down low and dashed outside, ignoring the plasma that seared at the light screens protecting her. As she ran, she heard a loud "Oomph!", but disregarded it and kept running until the juggernaut tank was in the distance, heading for its unknown destination.

After realizing that she was alone, she reached out with her conscience and asked in her head, [_Fox? Aloysius? Are you there?_]

[_Yeah,_] came her husband's reassuring voice, [_I'm alive. Where are you?_]

[_No clue,_] she responded, [_but thank heaven that you're alive!_]

[_I'd hate to ruin the moment,_] Aloysius' voice emerged, [_but can someone lend me a hand?_]

[_I'll be right there,_] the telepath replied.

Krystal followed the thought's trail back to where they ran from the juggernaut. Aloysius laid flat on his back and embedded into the ground. Fox ran up to them and just stared at the bat.

"Okay," Aloysius grunted, "that hurt more than what I'm used to nowadays."

"Wh- what happened?!" Fox finally managed to ask.

"It stepped on me with one of its legs. Argh…I'll be feeling that for a long time…And why isn't anyone helping me?!"

Krystal aimed her palm at him and lifted it up, causing the armored bat to shoot out of the ground, leaving a perfect impression of him, and gently dropped him down. He grunted and cursed with the choicest of words as he eased himself to his feet.

"Ugh," he grunted as he stretched different parts of his body. "Thanks, but what are we going to do about that thing? It looked like it's headin' over to the center of the district."

"Hold on," said Krystal, now holstering her Metal Storm and pressing her fingertips to her forehead with her eyes closed, "I'm going to find out."

The vulpine reached out in the darkness toward the juggernaut tank with her conscience, finding the many thoughts radiating from it. They ranged from "Dang, I just want to get back home already!" to "Come out, come out, come out, Lylatians!". The flurry of diverse thoughts made it hard to concentrate on a single conscience for too long, let alone even locate the commander who would have the information she wanted.

Krystal weaved through the myriad thoughts before catching a glimpse of "…we have to…". She immediately began to filter the other consciences and delve into the one she wished to eavesdrop on. The pattern of thoughts continued, "…center of the district and destroy that research building before those putrid Lylatians reach it and get that information…"

Startling the other two, she broke free of her meditation and yelled, "They're heading to the research building at the center to prevent us from getting the intel there!"

"Okay…" Fox recovered from the shock. "Thanks, Krys. I'm going to contact Adder and tell him to send some soldiers over there." He put two fingers to his helmet. "Adder! Adder, are you there?"

Gunfire and ricocheting shots could be heard as the voice of the serpent replied, "This had better be good! Roberts, just fire that last round and get outta there! Dangit, what is it?"

"Adder, this is Fox. We've discovered a lone juggernaut tank making its way for the research building at the center of the district. The humans are trying to destroy the installation and whatever vital intel it holds inside of it, and we need to send some soldiers to obtain that data, _pronto_!"

"Fox, this had better not end up like another Research Facility Gamma, because I'm not willing to sacrifice any lives over trying to get something that isn't there!"

"I can assure you it isn't," Fox spoke with a more serious tone. "Can you spare some troops?"

Adder now yelled at another soldier, "Whadda ya mean that thing's jammed?! I want results, corporal! Fix it!" He returned to the conversation. "Hold on there, I'm checking…Looks like you three are the only ones really capable at the moment- everyone else is either blowing up facilities or sweeping the district. I can ask Field Master Xamuros to go with four others, but they're fresh from the training camps and I doubt they're up for it."

Fox broke radio contact for a bit to ask, "What do you guys think?"

"I'm up for it," Aloysius answered. "It's fine by me."

"I'm in as well," nodded Krystal as she took her Metal Storm back out and cocked the action. "It's your call, Fox."

"Okay," the orange-furred kitsune resumed speaking into the radio, "we'll do it. Just tell some soldiers to sweep this part of the district for us."

"That's what I like about you, Fox," Adder gave a grunt of approval. "Always up for the challenge. Good, then. I'll ask the field master if he can meet up with you guys in a bit and tell those grunts to sweep your sector for you. Just make sure you get that intel!"

"Understood, Adder. Over and out," he turned to the others. "Alright, let's go! We don't have much time!"

Krystal followed close behind the other two as they headed for the district's center. Nobody knew exactly how long they had until the juggernaut tank would reach the installation, but chances were that they didn't have much longer until then. The vixen was surprised how relatively quiet it was at the moment. The only noises were the shower of rain, the plunking of raindrops in puddles, sporadic gunfire in the distance, and the squishing sound with each step made in the muddy ground. Every so often there was an explosion from one of the remaining siphoning facilities. It felt strangely peaceful even in a battlefield as such…

The telepath perked her ears up as she heard someone talking. Fox and Aloysius paused as well, making silent hand gestures as they crouched down and slowly made their way toward the source. They eventually made their way to it- a small set of barracks that had been riddled with bullets, allowing them to peek inside. There were two humans- one of them a commando- inside the room amidst rows of bunks. The commando was lying on the ground, the side of his throat bloody and torn while the other was crouched over him. Both had their weapons laid to the side.

"…make it," said the crouching soldier. "You're going to make it, pal! Don't worry!"

The dying soldier appeared not to hear the words as he lamented in a hoarse, almost drunken voice, "Heh, I remember life back on the farm…it was always so nice and peaceful…The sun would always rise in my bedroom window and…and…" He coughed several times.

"Take it easy, man!" the other human tried to comfort him. "You'll be fine! I swear it, you'll be-"

"Just shut up!" the human coughed twice more then continued. "I'm going to die, you idiot! I'm going to _die_! Those dang Spades- those traitors! They shoulda never come into existence!" Blood began to pour in larger amounts from the open throat wound.

"Please, just calm down!" the other one pressed a hand to the wound, trying to stem off the blood flow. Tears were streaking down his face. "I don't want to lose you, please!"

"It's too late," the breath of the wounded commando became increasingly labored. "It's too late…Those Spades killed me…You know…I-I never realized…how peaceful death really is…it's getting all cold and I…I can't feel…feel…" His breath came out as mere wisps and his voice dropped to a whisper. Blood began to drip past the other soldier's hand, "anything…Thanks…man…for everything…M-my time…has…has…"

When the soldier stopped breathing and didn't continue, his friend asked, "Scott? S-Scott? No man, please don't die! You can't die man! No…" he began to sob now. "Nooo! Scott! Scoooott!" he bent over his comrade's corpse and sobbed harder. He looked up as the earth rumbled and an Epitome of Terrain rose from the earth, dripping with mud. When it advanced towards the corpse, the soldier pulled away and tried to shield it with his arms and screamed, "NO! NO! You can't have him! You can't take him!" The Epitome was surprised as to why he would protect something dead and useless and advanced for the body again. The human now grabbed his rifle and aimed at the behemoth and yelled, "Get away! I said get away! I told you that you can't have him! Find someone else!" When the creature still made his way for the body, the human opened fire. However, the bullets passed all the way through the Epitome's muddy body without harm. Angered by this, the Epitome hardened its arms into a blade and sliced the weapon in half before stabbing them into the aggressor's chest.

As Krystal watched the Epitome of Terrain proceed to rip off both of the corpses' faces, her brain ran back through what she just saw. A human tried to comfort his dying comrade, then died trying to protect the corpse. Maybe…maybe humans weren't as bad as they seemed after all. Maybe they were forced into the universal conquest Iradanus envisioned and sought to make a reality. Maybe they weren't the merciless, savage brutes everyone thought they were…

"Krystal," Fox whispered into her ear. "We've wasted enough time, now let's go."

"But-" she tried to make a rebuttal, but he looked at her with sad eyes. He was moved by what he saw just like her, but they had a job to finish.

The vulpines and armored bat headed off for the center of the district again at a quick pace. Krystal knew that the other two depended on her to scan for enemy consciences, as they needed to get to the research building as fast as possible. This meant that they had no time to scan the area for hostiles, so they needed her to do the job as they ran. She cast out her mind as far as it could reach, hoping to catch a glimpse of enemy thought patterns.

Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of a new conscience, possibly a hostile. She silently alerted the other two by sending them a telepathic message saying, [_I've detected a new conscience. Disperse and hide._] Fox and Aloysius ran in different directions, confirming that they had received the message. Krystal ran into an alleyway and dropped to a prone position, Metal Storm at ready. A shadow crept fanlike along the walls of the opposite side, and Krystal aimed down the sight, preparing to fire if necessary. Instead, Xamuros came from around the bend, and she sighed in relief.

"Field Master," Fox stepped out of the wreckage of a siphoning facility. "Good to see you, sir."

"Same here," he nodded, "but…uh…why were you all hiding?"

"We thought you were an enemy," Aloysius answered. "It's nothing."

"I'm just glad you didn't shoot me. Alright, we need to get to that research building you were talking about- and fast, too. Fox. Krystal. Get on me. Aloysius, you're a little too heavy, so you're going to have to fly or something." The two vulpine's snickered at the last comment.

"Hey," the bat growled at the kitsunes, "it's the armor, I tell you! And all the medical stuff inside! I can't eat, remember?"

"That's enough," Xamuros interrupted, now transforming into Longsword mode. "Now get on."

Krystal clambered on behind Fox, and the hovercraft sped off while Aloysius took to the skies. At the speed they went, it didn't take long for them to reach the research installation. As the two vulpines dismounted Xamuros and he transformed back to his bipedal form, they looked at the building that lay in front of them. The three-story building was a grayish-black color and of a circular shape. Due to the fact that there were no lights on in the inside meant that the whole building had been evacuated. _Then again, _Krystal thought, _who wouldn't if a juggernaut tank was coming to disintegrate everything?_

Aloysius finally caught up and landed behind them, bent over with hands on his knees. "Next time," he panted, "Fox, Krystal…you two…are walking…"

"Enough," commanded Xamuros. "That juggernaut tank is almost within range of this building. We need to get to the main research section as quick as possible. Come on!"

As Krystal hurried toward the building with the other three, she spotted the juggernaut tank looming at the edge of her fog filter's range. She caught a sliver of something metallic in her peripheral vision, and she performed a combat roll to the left just as an Alpha mech landed and shattered the ground where she previously stood. As everyone else wheeled around to see the new adversary, two more of the mechs landed around them.

The telepath curved her left hand into a fist as the Alpha mechs performed their static discharges. As a white aura engulfed it, she lashed it out, expecting bolts of electricity to rush from her fingertips. Instead, a mere half-second before the bolts would have shot out, a brownish aura replaced the white one, and small bits of mud from the ground started flying around it. She didn't have enough time to react, and let the hand lash forward. The ground in front of her bulged and cracked as an earthen wave sped for the mech. Just before it reached it, stalagmites burst from the wave towards the mech, impaling it dozens of times. The wave continued past the mech and ended, but not before generating stalagmites that pierced into it from beneath and behind.

Krystal just stood motionless, her palm still reaching forward. She looked from the stalagmites that had just skewered the Alpha mech to her own palm, which she curled into a fist. The stalagmites reacted to this movement by crushing the mech with so much force that it promptly exploded. But…that wasn't possible! _Did I just use terrakinesis?_ she thought, still shocked. The other three stared at her in the same way, shocked just as much as she was.

Krystal tore herself from the shock and happiness of obtaining a new form of telekinesis and used electrokinesis on the second mech before it could react. The last Alpha mech, however, was able to dash up and ram into her with its head bent low, causing her to fly into a streetlamp, bending it sideways with the force of the ram. Her shields malfunctioned with a flash of light.

Aloysius fired his rocket launcher at the mech, but it merely jumped over it and onto him. Fox threw an EMP grenade at it, but it jumped away before it detonated; only causing Aloysius to curse as his HUD was being screwed up. Xamuros started firing precise Daggerblade shots at the Alpha mech. It was able to dodge the first bursts, but was hit in its organic legs with the next. As it started hallucinating, it started kicking and ramming at random objects before Fox picked up the EMP grenade- still active- and chucked it at the Alpha mech, which let out a series of shrieks before it fell to the ground and laid still.

"Well," Xamuros shrugged, "that was exhilarating, to say the least. Come on, let's get inside before more things show up!"

Krystal was helped to her feet by Fox. She groaned, "Fox, I can handle myself. Thanks."

"Babe," he smiled, "that was _amazing_! Seems that you learn different kinds of telekinesis during war."

"Yeah," she started walking after Aloysius and Xamuros. "Probably because I'm getting more sources of stimuli in order to learn them. Anyways, let's get going, honey."

"Augh," groaned Aloysius. "Honey is _not _a word to use on a battlefield!"

The pair of vulpines laughed at the comment as they headed into the darkness inside. After activating night vision, they followed Xamuros through several sets of work cubicles to an elevator. He pressed the call button, and it opened a second later. The soldiers stepped inside, and Aloysius pressed a button labeled "3" as the door closed shut. The elevator reached the top floor and opened to reveal a room with five large computers. What was typing away _at_ one of the made everyone jump.

The being was a black color and had a faintly humanoid shape. However, in place of legs were five orange tentacles; they didn't even touch the floor since it was levitating a few inches off of it. The chest and torso was formed from hexagonal plates stacked on top of one another that increased in size from the bottom to the top. The shoulders extended diagonally backwards and were orange on the back side; it had two, small, blue orbs near the bottom of the shoulder spires. The arms were also human-like, but where hands should have existed sprouted multiple orange and black tentacles. The head was spherical and was the size of a cantaloupe with a spire similar, albeit shorter, to the shoulders pointing diagonally backwards. In the middle of it was a gigantic, closed eye that spanned the entire front half of the head, the closed eyelids creating a vertical line. Strange, orange runes covered its entire body aside from the head

Hearing the foursome enter the room, the strange creature turned to face them and opened its eyelids, revealing an amber-colored, slit-like eye. The moment the eye opened, it generated a brilliant flash of white light that engulfed the room and caused everyone to shield their eyes or photoreceptors.

Krystal opened her eyes, completely dazed. She, like everyone else, looked at the others, at loss as to what was going on. It was as if they couldn't remember what had happened ten seconds before. Everyone scanned the room…and found it to be empty.

"Uh," she raised an eyebrow, "what just happened?"

Fox shrugged, "You got me. Field master, do you know anything?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," the golden Spade shook his head. "We're here to get that intel, aren't we? Well, the room's all empty, so let's get cracking!"

Xamuros went to the computer at the end of the room, booted up the system, and began typing away. Krystal, Fox, and Aloysius stood next to him as he navigated through almost-incomprehensible data, oblivious to the fact that the computer at the far end of the room appeared to by typing all by itself.

"Got it!" the field master spun his head round, causing everyone else to lean backwards in order to avoid getting cut. "Oh, sorry about that. Anyways, I found the data we needed and I've sent the information to the _Dreadnought_."

"Great, sir," Aloysius patted the altered human's back, "now let's get outta here."

"I'm afraid none of you are going anywhere."

Krystal whipped her Metal Storm to chest level as four Hunters materialized out of thin air. One was equipped with a shield and a drill while the rest had drills and directed plasma beam cannons or chainguns.

"You are all going to die here and now," the shield-bearing Hunter sneered, stretching his gigantic maw across his reptilian face in a vile grin. "We're going to make sure you get disintegrated by our juggernaut tank and…what the-"

The Hunters' gaze shifted to the far end of the room. After a half-second they jumped and were completely dazed. The Lylatians and Spade looked to the corner of the room, but found nothing to be there, still oblivious to the self-typing keyboard.

Krystal used this temporary distraction to her advantage. A brownish aura surrounded her left hand again, causing bits of the surrounding metal to fly around it. She made shot out her hand, causing parts of the metal floor around her to tear itself apart and fly at the Hunter at the far right, impaling him several times in the head. Aloysius fired his rocket launcher at the shield-bearing Hunter, who reacted just fast enough to block the deadly projectile. It exploded on the surface, blowing the two others next to him aside. While the other two cloaked themselves with their invisibility veil generator, Fox blew up the head of one of the Hunters lying on the floor with charged blasts from his two blaster pistols.

Krystal whipped up her Metal Storm and riddled the entire room with rapid-fire lasers. It didn't take long before the two remaining Hunters were flushed out. Aloysius threw his empty rocket launcher with such force that it skewered the Hunter he threw at, who was finished off by six Jackhammer shards from Xamuros. The foursome aimed their weapons at the last shield-bearing supersoldier.

"Aw, crap," the Hunter cursed.

"Look," Fox spoke, "we've got you outnumbered and outgunned, so we're giving you a chance to get outta here before we kill you."

"Yeah," Aloysius added, "that's right, you! And…" He suddenly turned to Fox. "Wait, we're letting him go?!"

"Yup, we sure are. So, what do you say?"

"I say," the Hunter growled, "you can keep your offer, and I'll kill you all by myself! I already got you a couple days ago, Lylatian! This time, no capturing!"

"I thought I remembered you," Fox narrowed his eyes and lifted his blasters. "Well…Zentax, was it? This is your last chance."

"And this is my answer!" Zentax roared as he lunged for Fox.

The vulpine commando sidestepped as the drill sunk into the computer behind him. Fox began firing his blasters into Zentax, who merely brought up his shield, the lasers creating ripples in the energy as they harmlessly impacted against it. The Hunter quickly leapt backwards to avoid letting Aloysius, Xamuros, and Krystal attack his vulnerable backside. The three Lylatians and Spade held their fire and waited for an opening as Zentax stood his ground.

"You know," Xamuros made an electronic hiss, "you can't hold this up forever."

"Hmph," the Hunter huffed. "And you know that I can just wait until the juggernaut tank reaches this building."

Krystal cursed under her breath. _He's got us at a disadvantage,_ she thought. _He just needs to hold his ground until the juggernaut tank arrives, and we're finished. Hm…looks like firearms won't help us here…_She holstered her MetalGun, took out her staff, and extended it, _So it's time to get down and dirty!_

"Heh," Zentax gave a short laugh, "what are you going to do, scum? Bash me to death?"

"No," the telepath replied, "but it does involve bashing."

She leapt at the Hunter, slamming the blunt end of her staff into the energy shield, causing Zentax to take a step backwards from the blow before bashing the shield into her, sending her backwards as well. He followed up with a short jab with his drill, moving his shield slightly to the side to do so. Krystal dodged and stabbed with the sharp end of the scepter. Again, the Hunter blocked with his shield.

The blue vixen rolled to the side to dodge another jab, got behind him, and swung her staff at him. He turned around to block with his shield, but in doing so, the others had a significant opening to fire since Krystal was out of the way. Zentax swung his shield around to block the incoming lasers and Jackhammer shards, and then he blocked a stab from Krystal with his massive drill.

Krystal kept trying to pummel Zentax with her staff, but he kept blocking every single blow with his drill while keeping his shield against the other three. However, Fox stayed in position in front of the Hunter's shield while Aloysius and Xamuros began strafing to Krystal's position. They knew that he could block Krystal's attacks, but he couldn't block lasers and Jackhammers as easily. Apparently, he noticed this too, so he made a final swing at Krystal (who effortlessly dodged it) and jumped into the air, disappearing in a millisecond.

The four looked around the room for any sign of the Hunter's shadow, but the task was made extremely arduous given how dark it was inside the room and that the NV visor made it difficult to locate it in the green, white, and black sea of static. Krystal wheeled around as she heard Fox's scream. The moment she turned around, she saw him on the ground with Zentax prepared to strike him with his drill, already giving off a harsh whine.

"NO!" Krystal shrieked and let loose a storm of orange spheres of fiery energy at Zentax. He roared in pain and staggered backwards as the vixen let an icy mist surround her hands, which soon spread to her staff. Not only did contact with her staff amplify her powers, but she could draw energy from the heart of the staff itself; Krystal used this to her advantage as chunks of ice encased her arms and staff.

She fired a chilling spray of mist at Zentax, the ice encasing her arms and staff shattering as she did so. He brought up his shield to defend him, but the web-like spines of the shield froze over. Krystal leapt into the air and brought the staff down on the Hunter's shield, shattering it into pieces and successfully getting rid of his greatest asset in defense.

Her friends and husband could only watch in amazement as Krystal ducked under a punch from the shield-less arm and countered with an upwards slice from her staff. She followed up with several more slashes and bashes before jumping high into the air- her staff glowing with energy- and bringing the scepter down on the floor, creating a large crater and propelling Zentax into the air. The telepath stretched out her hand- now lit with a blue glow that spread to the Hunter and blew him through the wall outside onto the ground.

Krystal aimed the spiked tip of her staff at Zentax and formed an energy sphere on it, then hesitated. The once-mighty, bloody Hunter was cowering away from her on the ground, terrified of her power and of death. His shield-less hand was brought up against his long, narrow, reptilian face in a useless attempt to protect himself from the inevitable. This brought back the memory of the two humans- the pain it inflicted on her from watching it. The kitsune sighed and fired.

On the ground, Zentax winced as he heard the shot. After a couple of seconds, he realized he was still alive and opened his eyes. He looked next to his head to see a wrecking ball-sized crater and gazed at the Lylatian, who now aimed her staff just to the side of him.

"You're a pitiful sight, Hunter," Krystal spoke. "Nevertheless, you don't deserve to die. It sickens me to see such a powerful soldier cowering from a single enemy. You live to fight another day. Now leave."

For a moment, Zentax's eyes shone with gratitude and he stuttered, "B-but…we're…"

"What? Enemies? I told you to leave. Now go before I change my mind and decide to finish you off."

The Hunter's eyes now flashed with hatred and disgust once more. He got to his feet and disappeared without a trace minus a few drops of yellow blood. Krystal twirled her staff with her fingers, and then flipped it over her wrist before sheathing it on her back once more. She found Xamuros to be staring at her.

"What?" she raised an eyebrow.

"'What'?!" Xamuros looked at her as if she just turned purple. "'What'?! That was the coolest, most freakin' awesome thing I've ever seen!"

"Ha, ha, ha!" Aloysius gave a surprisingly warm, friendly laugh. "You know, I said the same thing several minutes ago. Well, I'd say that's a job well done. We got the data, we're still alive…it's all good."

"Still," Fox put his left thumb and index finger to his muzzle in thought. "I just can't help but think that we might be forgetting something…" Suddenly, a high-pitched gasp filled their ears as a yellow beam of energy sheared over their heads, the soldiers ducking down as debris fell from above.

"You mean like the juggernaut tank that's going to disintegrate this whole thing?" Xamuros asked sarcastically, then commanded. "Jump out the hole!" He was indicating the gaping hole in the wall caused by the Hunter. At this moment, the self-typing keyboard stopped doing so…

Krystal leapt outside and softened her landing by rolling after she did so as Fox did the same. Xamuros and Aloysius merely jumped onto the ground and ran with everyone else as the juggernaut tank started disintegrating the rest of the building, shearing off chunks of it with its D-rays. Even after the research installation was nothing more than a pile of rubble, it continued wiping out its remains until the only thing left was a large series of scars on the ground where the building once stood.

"Well," Xamuros grumbled, "we took out the siphoning facilities, we got the intel, and we killed a _ton_ of enemies…but we still have that gigantic tank to worry about! What the hell are we going to do about it?"

"I was going to say the same thing, field master," Fox eyed the tank warily. "How're we going to take that thing down? That gravlift's the only weak point, and now it's protected by that grating! How do we stop it?"

"One way," Aloysius smiled behind the visor. "I'll give you three guesses."

Fox stayed silent for a while, running through the sentence a few times before shaking his head and saying, "No. No way. There's absolutely no way I'm going through that again!"

"What, Fox?" Krystal asked, then she realized what he was worried about and began shaking her head as well. "Oh, I'm not doing that again. Oh, no!"

"What are you two so worried about?" Xamuros asked, not knowing what they were so afraid of.

"I'll show you," Aloysius put away his assault rifle. "Now stand perfectly still…"

**About Five Seconds Later…**

Xamuros was sailing through the air, screaming and flailing his arms as he went. His flight came to an abrupt end as he landed with a heavy _WHAM_ on the juggernaut tank. As he got back up with a groan, Fox and Krystal landed next to him shortly after, landing in the same "luxurious" fashion he did.

"Now you see why we hate this," Krystal grunted as she stood up. "I really hope we don't have to do it again."

"Same here, babe," Fox nodded in agreement. "Ack, why does he always throw me so dang hard?"

"Quit complaining," Aloysius retorted as he landed next to them and snapped his wings shut, "it's better than falling short and splattering yourself on the ground!"

"That's what you said last time," Fox grumbled. "At any rate, somebody should get the stupid hatch open and chuck a grenade inside."

Krystal blew off the hatch with telepathy, cooked a splitter grenade, chucked it inside, and put the hatch back in place. The four backed away from the hatch as a multitude of explosions were heard from the inside. After the last one, the juggernaut tank stopped moving and firing. Xamuros kicked the hatch aside and stepped back moaning in disgust. The entire inside was coated in blood and gory substances. Even the bottom of the hatch was slathered in the bodily material.

"Well, let's just assume that everything in there's dead," the golden Spade put a spiked arm to his face and shook it. "At least that's taken care of."

"You guys did alright," came Adder's voice over the radio. "Nice going, up there. I was about to send Tallon to fire a miniature nuclear missile into it, but seeing as the problem's solved, I don't think we'll be needing it. So, did you get the data?"

"That's affirmative," Fox confirmed. "We've sent it to the _Dreadnought_. So what's the news?"

"Hah, we've taken the district, that's what!" Adder laughed, then coughed twice before continuing. "All enemy forces have pulled out of the immediate area! We've won!"

"That's great news, Adder," Krystal smiled and stretched her arms. "Ah, now I can go and get some sleep back on the ship!"

"I thought you might say that," the serpent sighed. "Anyways, while the rest of the soldiers set up a defensive perimeter around this district, I want you guys back on the _Dreadnought_. We've had a long, tough mission tonight…er, morning, actually. It's two-hundred-twelve hours in Titanian time. Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf…let's go home. Xamuros, are you coming, sir?"

"Yeah," the Spade replied, "I guess I've got nothing else better to do…"

* * *

Onboard the _Dreadnought_

Krystal pushed the safety harness off of her chest and stepped out of the shuttle, thanking the pilot as Fox, Xamuros, and Aloysius did the same. The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf had arrived back on the ship at different times, since some were needed for last-minute duties and that there was a lack of operational transports after the battle (partly due to the fact that most were either shot down or blown up by missiles after they landed). The four were some of the last ones to get back onto the ship.

"Ah," Aloysius sighed, hastily stowing his assault rifle back onto the weapon rack it came from, "ship, sweet ship. Glad to be back at last."

"Aren't we all," Fox agreed, replacing his blasters on their shelves and removing his armor. "I'm just glad to _be_ back at all."

Krystal slipped out of her armor and placed it onto Ace's work table, then yawned, "Huuuuuuuh! I can't wait to just get back in bed and sleep for the rest of the day! I'm so tired after all of that!"

After removing their armor and armaments (Xamuros was the exception), the four headed to the elevator that would carry them to the closest teleporter where they could all get a bite to eat or relax. Just sitting in a comfy chair was enough to brighten up anyone's day after a battle like that. The elevator came to a stop at their floor, but before they could enter, Ace stepped outside of it with Slippy close behind.

"Nice to see you guys back," the albino greeted them as he walked past them. "Excuse me. Comin' through…"

"Slippy!" Fox smiled, "You're back!"

"Yeah," the toad tilted his head sideways for a moment, "I managed to talk Amanda into lettin' me come back here…and rejoin the team!"

"She let you rejoin the team?" Krystal repeated. "That's wonderful!"

"Yeah," the frog looked away from them, "but on one condition…"

"Uh, and that would be?"

"Heh," Slippy tried to laugh and scratched the back of his head, "I can't take any part in any battle anymore…"

"What?!" Fox widened his eyes in shock. "You mean she won't let you fight with us?"

"Well, I can, you know…invent new weapons and armor with Ace and I can watch over the ship…But if Amanda hears anything about getting shot at or being anywhere inside a combat zone, I'm gone for good…"

"Still," Krystal tried to change the mood, "it's great to have you back, Slippy."

"Hey, Slips!" Ace called from his workbench. "Get over here! I have a new project I know you'll love!"

"Don't call me that!" the green amphibian retorted. "Fine, fine, I'm coming!"

"Well, what're we waiting for?" asked Aloysius gruffly. "Let's get to the mess hall!"

The four walked into the elevator, which rose back into the elevator room within a few dozen seconds, where the four stepped into the beam of light, thinking of the mess hall. Moments later, they reappeared in what looked like the mess hall, but it was covered in the corpses of Hunters, spent bullet casings, and yellow blood. The rest of the team members were kicking the corpses into a pile and cleaning up the blood. In the middle of it all stood ROB, the two gatling guns on his back.

"I never shoulda doubted ya," Aloysius gave a friendly pat on the bat to the droid before walking away. "Nice job, ya bucket of bolts."

"Query: Fox, should I take his statement as a compliment or as an insult?" it inquired.

"Beats me, ROB," Fox shrugged. "Anyways, nice job protecting Dr. Oxan."

"Thank you, Fox."

Krystal pushed the corpse of a Hunter off of a bench and sat down with Fox. As they sat, however, Adder and Wolf, last to arrive, came through the teleporter. The lupine was straining to support the serpent, who had bandage tape wrapped around his chest, a bloody stain on the left side.

"Holy-," Cris stepped towards him after dropping a final corpse into the pile of dead Hunters. "Adder, what happened to you?!"

"Heh," he gave a short laugh, "I got a little careless letting that commando sneak up on me like that, is all. Don't worry- you know how our kind heal fast. I'll be fine by next week."

"But, Adder…"

"I'm fine, Cris. Wolf, you can let me go now- I can walk by myself."

The one-eyed veteran almost dropped Adder as he let go of him, gasping, "Jeez, man, you really need to lose weight!"

"I'll ignore that…," Everyone in the room erupted in laughter, which died out when the serpent gave a harsh look at them. "That's enough, people. So, Oxan, did you get the data we sent you?"

"Yeah," the human nodded, readjusting his glasses. "Come on, follow me into the command deck, everyone."

After filing into the teleporter, the teams assembled themselves into the command deck. Krystal descended the steps to the lower part of the room and sat herself in a chair next to Fox, although it felt a little harder than the last time. As usual, most of them merely jumped over the railing and onto the floor while ROB called Ace and Slippy up.

While the two inventors arrived, Adder shook his head and spoke, "You know, since most of us hardly ever use the stairs, maybe I should just consider removing them…"

Oxan cleared his throat, gathering everyone's attention before beginning, "Now, we all know that my kind is trying to siphon the energy from the planets of the Lylat System, as they have with every other solar system in the past. However, it seems you Lylatians put up more of a fight than most of the races we humans have conquered, and as a result, we were unable to drain all the planetary energy in this star system. Unfortunately, I had to be the one who gave the order to begin construction on the Gargantuans in order to comply with my directions…

"Now, Gargantuans are colossal battleships- larger than anything you have ever seen. Ace, I can conjure up an image on the hologram projector with my thoughts, correct?"

"That's right," the pit viper confirmed. "Just place your hand on the panel there and just think what you want to project."

"Good, then." Oxan placed his palm onto the designated panel, and a three-dimensional battleship was etched into the air in front and above him. It was extremely narrow, but extremely long as well. At the bow of the ship were two parallel stalks that extended forward and were surrounded by vaguely similar, albeit smaller structures that were attached to extensions of the bow that formed an X. At the rear of the ship was a rectangular prism that formed the widest part of the ship- seven narrow midsections would be needed to be stacked next to one another to be as wide as it. Seven rear-facing engines could be seen on this prism, and there were ten, larger and more powerful-looking engines facing forward. From the prism, a superstructure curved towards the ship's bow.

"I have no clue how these things work or what the exact dimensions are, since I've never seen them in actual combat before," Oxan continued. "Also, the data obtained in the research building back on Titania only revealed their basic design. However, I do know this through a bit of a conversation I had with a colleague before I left the humans' side. These battleships- these Gargantuans- are extremely hard to destroy and can wipe out anything that stands in its way. I heard that nothing in the United Lylat System Armed Corps' arsenal can even penetrate the outside."

"Ouch," Falco looked as if he saw someone get hit in the head with a club. "Um, how many did you say there were again?"

"I didn't say how many there were yet," Oxan answered. "With the energy my kind has taken from your planets and others…I'd say that there will be seven of them. And after hearing stories of them, it's going to be hard enough taking down just one.

"Now for the good news. Since we humans weren't able to drain enough energy from your planets, the Gargantuans won't be fully operational (sighs of relief went off around the room after hearing this). Though we can thank our lucky stars for that, they still pose a great threat to the Lylat System. Therefore, in a few weeks, the entire United Lylat System Aerial and Spatial Defense Force is going to commence an attack on the shipyards. The generals already know of this, and now you do as well, since you'll be taking part in it as well."

"Well, at least we stand a chance," Wolf sighed. "So where are the shipyards located? We need to know so we can prepare."

"That we do. ROB? Would you come over here?"

The yellow droid descended from the control console to the holoprojector and clacked at a few buttons until Fichina popped up with a red dot near the equator.

"What's that?" Fox asked.

"Fox," ROB spoke, "I believe this is the location of the main research location of the humans. After Field Master Xamuros sent the data and Oxan forwarded it to High Command, a Special Forces team infiltrated the facility and brought back a small amount of data. When the team was finally detected, the humans there were able to wipe most of the information on their computers with no hope of recovery. However, they were able to recover the shipyards' location."

As ROB said it, a holographic image of a purple, Z-shaped nebula popped up alongside a planet dotted with black, orange, and dark red.

"Perfect," Leon spoke sarcastically. "Sector Z and Macbeth. A mysterious nebula and a lava-covered factory planet. Can this get any worse?"

"No, Leon," Ace began shaking his head, "don't you ever say that-"

"Actually, yes," Oxan nodded glumly as the albino's eyes flashed at the chameleon. "I'm afraid that there is no information regarding the stage of construction the Gargantuans are currently in. If we're lucky, they're still in the initial stages by the time we get there. If we're not, they'll be done and partially operational by the time the attack commences."

"It hasn't been long since the order's been given, right?" Fox asked.

"No. In fact, it's only been a few days."

"Then they can't have gotten far on construction. We need to attack as soon as-"

A series of electronic beeps emitted from ROB's control console, and the robot clamored, "We have an alternate-frequency message coming from Supreme General Pepper and generals Halcyon and Hare. Opening communications channel now."

"I thought you said the humans stole all our comm frequency numbers!" Slippy exclaimed at Adder.

"I said _most_ of them," the serpent corrected. "Anyways, let's see what they called us for."

Three holographic panels popped up, revealing the leading generals. Although everyone had been expecting bad news or another mission, the three were actually smiling.

As everyone stood and saluted, Fox greeted, "Good morning, generals. How can we be of service?"

"It's actually night where we are," Peppy shrugged, then continued, "but who cares? We've got excellent news!"

"Really?" Xamuros asked as everyone sat back down. "What's so great that we have to risk getting eavesdropped by the humans?"

"Everyone," Pepper began to speak, "the humans have retreated off of our planets and moons!"

"What?!" everyone aside from ROB screamed in unison, causing the canine to back away from the screen.

"Urgh," the bloodhound, patted his ears. "Before you bring me closer to deafness, I'll just repeat it again- the humans have retreated from our planets and moons."

"That's not just excellent news, general," Marcus smiled. "That's the best freakin' news we've heard since the war started! Pardon, my use of words, of course."

"I am glad you think so," Halcyon spoke. "We have also received word that all remaining siphoning facilities and human installations have been either destroyed by our soldiers and Spades or have self-destructed, and-"

"Hold on, sir," Oxan interrupted, bringing everyone's attention to him. "You said that some of the facilities self-destructed?"

"Yes," Halcyon confirmed. "In fact, our planets are-"

"But…," Oxan's face turned pale, "my kind needs every bit of planetary energy they can get their hands on for the Gargantuans! Why would they destroy their sources?"

"Who knows?" Xamuros gave a small shrug. "Maybe they wanted to destroy any data left in the computers there."

"Maybe…," Oxan agreed, "but, anyways, does this mean that they've withdrawn from the system?"

"No," Peppy shook his head, "they've pulled out of our planets and moons, but they're gathering at the shipyards you told us about, doctor. It seems that they're making their last stand there."

"And it looks like we're going to take 'em on, then," Tallon punched his hand into his other palm. "So when will the attack take place? We need to take those guys down before it's too late!"

"Slow down, Tallon," Pepper commanded. "While it is wise to eliminate a threat before it becomes too much of one, it's also wise to allow our forces to recuperate before doing so. After all these battles, many of our troops are weary. I'm sure you can all agree."

"You bet, sir!" Brutus yawned. "But still, we need to know when the attack will take place."

"In a few weeks," Halcyon answered. "We will notify you when it is time. Oxan, your transport off the _Dreadnought _is en route. Prepare for your departure to an underground bunker. We cannot let the humans get you, especially not on that Hunter-filled ship."

As if on cue, the chair beneath Krystal flickered, and she leapt off as one of the gray behemoths materialized itself and leapt for Oxan. Before he was halfway into the air, ROB whipped out his gatling guns and pummeled the Hunter with rounds, blowing him out of the air without missing a single shot.

After the droid finished him off, Krystal sighed in relief, "I guess that's why mine felt so weird. I guess it also explains how we actually have enough seats for everyone."

"My point exactly," Halcyon pointed at the corpse of the Hunter, which ROB was carrying away. "Oxan, prepare for departure. Your shuttle seems to have arrived. As for everyone else, rest well. Field Master, Supreme General Pepper wishes that you remain onboard the _Dreadnought_ until we begin the attack on the shipyards. Halcyon, over and out."

After the panel containing Halcyon faded, Peppy spoke, "Well, guys, enjoy your relaxation time. Until next time, Hare, over and out."

Now as the only one left, Supreme General Pepper smiled, "Members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf…the time for the final battle is almost here. Just rest up, and be prepared for the moment to arrive. Pepper, over and out."

After the last panel faded and the holoprojector shut off, Oxan sighed, "Well, it's been great staying here, ladies and gentlemen, but I must bid you all farewell. Good bye, everyone. Hope to see you all soon."

"Bye, Oxan!" Xamuros bid his farewell as the scientist entered the teleporter. "Well, I guess the time's almost here."

"Yeah," Fox nodded in agreement. "It's almost time for the final battle…Everyone?" As the commandos-for-hire looked at the vulpine leader, he spoke, "Look, I've known you all for quite a while. Some a little shorter than others (Adder gave a short nod). Nevertheless, you are more than my comrades in battle but my friends as well. The final battle is going to be a dangerous one, and…it may be possible that not all of us will return alive. Is there anyone who…wants to back down and stay behind?"

When no one moved, Wolf spoke, "Pup, you know us better than that. You think we're going to fight all those battles we just did and then just back away? Two words, man- hell, no. We've watched each other's backs throughout this entire war, and we've always been there for one another! I think I speak for everyone when I say there ain't no way we're going to stop now!"

"Thanks, Wolf," Fox smiled. "That meant a lot."

"No prob, man. You know, I just hate it when friends back down when you need 'em most, so-"

"I am sorry to interrupt," ROB spoke from his control console, "but there is a message coming from Oxan's shuttle."

"What?!" Adder exclaimed. "Well, don't just stand there! Bring it up!"

The holoprojector once again flickered to life as a panel revealing Oxan inside the shuttle popped up with the pilot at the controls. By the look of things, they were already in space.

"Alright, doctor," Fox crossed his arms. "What's so important to tell us that you couldn't wait until you got to the underground bunker?"

"Lylatians," Oxan leaned closer to the comm screen. "We are in terrible danger. Stop…and listen to what I have to say. I've just figured out that the Gargantuans we're planning to-"

"Hey!" a voice came as a panel with a transport pilot popped up. "What's the big idea? I get called over here to pick up this human traitor person, and all I get for flying for half-an-hour is another shuttle with him on it! Can somebody please explain to me what's going on?"

Everyone including Oxan was stunned, caught completely off guard. Krystal was the first to see it. The pilot in Oxan's transport flickered and cracked twice. _No! _she screamed in her head. _It couldn't be!_

"Oxan!" the telepath screamed, "Behind you!"

It was too late- the monstrous Hunter took the place of the pilot and shoved Oxan into the wall. Everyone watched helplessly as the Hunter started up his drill and plunged it into the scientist's chest. The speed of the drill's spin actually made the human jerk wildly a few times, barely alive after being so brutalized. The Hunter released the scientist, then grabbed his head in his free hand and smashed it several times against the window, which formed a white spider web of cracks and blood, but didn't shatter.

Once life had indeed left the human, the Hunter turned toward the screen and smiled vilely, "Lord Iradanus sends his best regards. After all, he did say…," The Hunter ripped off the corpse's head, "he will get his head!"

"Holy crap!" Adder cursed. "ROB! SHOOT THE SHUTTLE! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!"

As ROB aimed one of the _Dreadnought_'s many automatic autocannons at the shuttle, the Hunter's helmet extended a glass pane around the rest of the monster's head, sealing it off as he tackled through the hull of the ship and into space, flying off with his G-diffusers and disappearing with his invisibility veil generator. He was able to get out just in time as the shuttle was blown into pieces, the fiery explosion almost instantly extinguished in the vacuum of space.

Everyone fell quiet and stared into the general area of the shuttle in a silent vigil. The pilot, seeing that a valuable life was lost, shut off the comm channel in respect. Xamuros appeared to take it especially hard. He did not stand, but was on his knees on the floor, his head bent downwards. Despite not being able to shed a tear or sob, sorrow radiated from him.

Krystal felt as if a part of her died. She saw that the Hunter was armed with a drill and the shattered remains of an energy shield with bits of ice covering the arm. She knew that the Hunter was the one she had spared.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Krystal now sat alone on the bed she and Fox shared. She was locked in an endless stare at the ground- a trance-like state known as the thousand-yard-stare. All she could think about was all the brutal deaths of such brave souls during the battle and the death of Oxan- a death she felt responsible for. She also felt remorse for the two humans at the barracks. One died in the caring hands of a brother in arms, who died trying to protect his body. She couldn't tear herself from the depressing thoughts- she couldn't think of anything relatively happy. This was true sorrow.

The blue-furred vixen didn't even look (more or less move) when there was a knock on the door. After a few moments, Xamuros came in. He, too, looked deeply saddened.

"Commander Krystal, is everything alright?" he asked. "You've been in this room for over half-an-hour."

Hiding her surprise that such a large amount of time passed in what seemed like seconds, she replied, "I…I'm fine."

"I have enough of an understanding of emotions to see that you're not."

Krystal sighed, then spoke, "Field Master…it's…it's just…I feel like I'm the one who caused Oxan's death."

"You mean by sparing the Hunter?" Xamuros sat down with her now.

"You knew?" she asked in reply, her tone barely changing.

"I saw the signs as well," he nodded solemnly and turned away. "I doubt it's your fault."

"Why? I let the Hunter live, and he killed Oxan. If I would've killed him, Oxan would still-"

"There are thousands of Hunters out there," Xamuros interrupted, trying not to put Krystal under greater stress. "There would have just been another one to finish the job."

The telepath stayed silent for a few moments, then replied, "But…still…even if it wasn't entirely my fault…it's still terrible that he died. Not only did it prevent us from learning what Oxan was trying to say, but…we've lost one of our greatest assets in this war."

"Krystal," Xamuros turned to her. She was surprised at how informal he was by not using her name with her rank as he continued, "what's done…is done, whether it's favorable or not. Oxan was a great person who tried to defy his own race for what he thought was right…and my creator as well. I will always remember him as the father and hero I never knew."

Krystal cracked a thin smile, "He sounded a lot like you, you know. You also turned against your kind because of what you believed in."

"I guess you're right," Xamuros stood up. "Anyways, try not to feel so bad about it. It couldn't be helped, so don't let it get in too deep, alright?"

The kitsune nodded, "Thanks, sir. I feel a bit better now."

"Good. I'll see you later then." On his way out, however, he tripped over the sliding door's guide rails and fell to the ground. After heaving himself back up, he grumbled, "You know, I'm starting to think that having spikes instead of feet is a big design flaw."

Krystal couldn't help but laugh as he headed on out, closing the door behind him.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone was asleep on the _Dreadnought_ now, aside from ROB and Xamuros, who couldn't really do so. However, one individual was the contrary.

Krystal shot up from her sleep, looking around. Beside her was Fox in deep sleep, snoring softly. The telepath put a hand to her head as the shock from her recent vision subsided. _Was it real?_ she asked herself in her mind. _…It seemed…all real…But…then…_

The vixen slowly crept out of bed to avoid waking up Fox and silently made for the door, manually sliding it open to avoid generating too much noise. Once she was in the brightly-lit hallway, she shielded her eyes as the light burned at them. After the dazed feeling subsided, she crept down the hallway toward a certain bedroom. Reaching it, she knocked as lightly as possible…and the door fell inwards with a loud _thud_.

Cringing from the noise and hoping that it didn't wake anyone else up, she groped around, her eyes unable to adjust from darkness to light and darkness again. Suddenly, something moved on the floor, and she paused. Her legs were kicked out from under her, and she could barely see the faint outline of a magnum revolver aimed at her forehead.

"Don't shoot!" she whispered harshly.

"Krystal?" a strong voice sounded. "Hold on." The lights then came on, revealing Adder, who was now scrambling to replace the door.

"I really need to renovate this ship," he grumbled as he shoved the door back into place, then whispered, "There had better be a darn good reason for waking me up…," he glanced at his watch, which was glowing fluorescent green in the dark, "three hours after I've gone to sleep."

"There is," Krystal whispered back. "Adder, I'm going to tell you something, and I don't want anyone else to know about it."

"You have my word," he nodded. "What is it?"

"I had a vision a short while ago. In it I saw-" asdfowejfk;sldfjjnv psauvpz[

Trans-_

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* * *

Captured Siphoning Facility District, Titania

Same Time

In the wreckage of a broken-down siphoning facility, the black-and-orange, tentacle-limbed entity emerged from the shadows. It was about seven hours after the humans had retreated from the system's planets and moons. Its gigantic eye remaining closed, it scanned the area for anyone that might be a potential threat to its operation before settling into place.

[_Master Chronicus,_] it spoke in a raspy, echoing voice without words via telepathic communication. Making sure it had a secure mind link, he continued the private conversation, [_I have unfortunate news. Though I was able to obtain some of the desired data from the humans' research __building, it was destroyed before I was able to gather enough information to prove as evidence to your theories. What is your wish?_]

[_Infiltrator,_]came the reply in a light, echoing, male voice, [_is there not another source for you to access the data?_]

[_I am afraid not, Master Chronicus,_] the Infiltrator replied. [_Every other human computer or data accessing device has been destroyed by either the Lylatians or by the humans in an effort to prevent intelligence from falling into enemy hands. However…Ugh, please excuse me, my Master._] A group of patrolling Lylatians were heading straight for the Infiltrator's location. If they saw it now, the whole operation could be in jeopardy. It decided to act now and severed the connection.

The Infiltrator hovered over the wreckage of the destroyed facility, surprising the Lylatians and gaining their full attention. Before they could react, however, he opened his eye, in which all of them gazed into. The soldiers were dazed for a moment, and then looked around in confusion, not even noticing it even if their gaze was directly upon it. They then continued their patrol, searching the ruined building without noticing the creature amidst them. It closed its eye, and then tried to reestablish telepathic connection.

Like others of his kind, the Infiltrator had the special ability to wipe any other creature's memory of ever seeing it with a simple gaze into its bulbous eye. Even after that, the victim's brain would then be unable to register the Infiltrator, making it forever invisible to all who stared into its eye. Even machines were susceptible to the mind wipe. That was the reason, after all, why he and his kin were called "Infiltrators". They were perfectly suited for the task.

[_Is there a problem?_] came the mysterious Chronicus' voice.

[_Just some patrolling Lylatians, master,_] the Infiltrator answered. [_Do not be alarmed- their minds have been wiped of my presence._]

[_Good. You may continue._]

[_Of course, Master. However, there are some access points left which I can use. To be accurate, there are seven of them._]

[_Inside the Gargantuans. I see._]

[_Master, the status of my operation type prevents me from being able to access the data. What is your wish?_]

Chronicus stayed silent for a few seconds, then responded, [_Your operation has now been elevated to _Ahlfæ _priority. Do what you must to attain that evidence. If my suspicious are correct, the humans are not as trustworthy as I first assumed._]

[_Yes, Master Chronicus. I shall not fail you._]

* * *

The conclusion of chapter 14. Again, I attempted more of that emotional feel in the scene with the two humans and with Krystal and Xamuros. Thinking back to that, though, it feels sorta cheesy and superficial...I don't know why, but it just seems that way to me. *shrugs*

Well, Oxan's dead. You had to see it coming, since Iradanus is not the type to stand by idly as someone spills the humans' secrets to the enemy.

Now for the most interesting part...the part involving the Infiltrator and this mysterious "Chronicus". I'll leave the reader (you!) to come up with your on hypotheses as to what that segment means. Read and review, people! Read and review!


	30. Chapter 15: Hey, What Gives?

Chapter 15: Hey, What Gives?

March 13, 2362

Aboard the _Dreadnought_

1004 hours

Corruption Purged_

Reestablishing Proper Transmission Signal_

Even when it came to sleeping, Falco couldn't stay on the ground for long. The blue-feathered avian was sleeping in a hammock suspended five feet off of the ground with his hands behind his head as he slept peacefully. He was dressed only in a white undershirt and a pair of boxers, and was completely oblivious to the alarm clock that was beeping on a small, wooden shelf next to him. When he finally opened his eyes, he raised an eyebrow, wondering what that annoying beeping could be. Looking to the shelf on his right, he brought a fist down on the alarm's off button, ending its series of beeps.

_Ah, well,_ Falco thought as he yawned and stretched his arms. _So what if I slept late? I still got a good night's sleep._

The bird cracked his neck, then flipped himself over the side of the hammock. He landed on the ground and softened the impact by landing in a crouch. He stood upright and flipped the light switch. However, sparks flew from overhead with a small _fizz_ as the light bulb detached from its socket and now dangled from the ceiling at head level with a few wires preventing it from falling to the ground. He sighed and shook his head, then flicked the light bulb, causing it to flicker a few times before staying on. The old ship was starting to get on his nerves now.

Falco looked around his room. The walls were covered in posters of various rock bands and starfighters. Around him were a dresser, most of its drawers open to reveal the unorganized clothes inside; a small bookshelf that was lined with music albums instead of books, and various plastic fighter models that stood on small stands around the room.

The ace pilot decided to put off steam showering and using dental foam until later tonight. He searched his dresser until he found his favorite flight jumpsuit. It was red with chrome-colored sides and elbow guards. Black lines formed a 'V' across his chest and neckpiece, where two, curved shoulder plates jutted from. He also found a pair of chrome-colored combat boots to go along with it.

After adorning the jumpsuit and boots, he decided to crack the rest of his body- his back, knuckles, toes…and even his ankles, elbows, wrists, and lower beak. He didn't exactly know why he liked to do it- it was just a regularly-performed habit. Falco gave off another yawn as he walked outside and into the hallway, heading for the teleporter at the other end that would take him to the mess hall…

* * *

The moment the alarm beeped to life, Leon's left hand shot out, latched onto a nearby pistol, and shot the alarm clock. However, instead of generating a gunshot and blowing the clock off of the simple, metal nightstand it was on, an extremely fake-sounding explosion sounded off as the beeping stopped. The chameleon smiled as he eased himself off of his simple mattress. He found morning stress relief easily by firing the electronic pistol at the clock when the alarm turned on, which would then register the signal and shut off. It was all the satisfaction of shooting an alarm clock, but without the mess or the noise.

In a swift motion, the viashino, also dressed in an undershirt and a pair of boxers, was off his mattress in a flash and flipped the light switch. After flickering and fizzing a few times, the light turned on, and his independent eyes gazed at his surroundings. The room was of only two colors- white and gray. The walls, floor, and ceiling were a stark white. His mattress, the nightstand, and his dresser were entirely gray. There were no real decorations of any sort- nothing to distract the mind.

Leon stepped into his bathroom- also of the white and gray color scheme- and took a quick steam shower before using dental foam and spitting the foul-tasting substance out. As he made for his simple dresser, he merely shrugged and put on his tactical assassin suit. It was of a deep purple and black color and made of multiple armor plates put together in a fashion that didn't hinder movement in any way. He also donned a black cargo belt and took a moment to decide before taking a MAC-58 sub-machine gun from under his pillow and holstered it. The weapon had the shape of a large pistol, but a large, cylindrical barrel/silencer extended from the pistol grip instead of a thin barrel. Everyone carried a weapon around now, though Leon had always done it through habit. He lived by a simple code- _Threats are everywhere._

The reptile stepped outside into the hallways and scanned both ways with his eyes before heading out, looking for any large shadows that could be Hunters in hiding. After confirming that the hallway was clear, he headed for the teleporter at the end of the passageway…

* * *

"For crying out loud!" Falco exclaimed, "How many Hunters do we have on this stupid ship?"

"I have absolutely no clue," Xamuros growled as he kicked a fresh corpse into the rapidly-growing pile of bodies that occupied a corner of the mess hall. "These things show up every few minutes! Who knows how many we have here?"

"That's nothing I wanted to hear," Falco sighed. "Well, I'm gonna grab some grub now."

"Just make sure the table you're sitting on actually _is_ a table!"

The avian went up to the counter, and was surprised to see Adder behind it, serving only one dish- meatloaf. _Great,_ he sighed again, _something that looks like it came from the toilet…for breakfast._

"Yo," he greeted. "How come you're here?"

"Eh, I decided to cook just for today," Adder smiled back. "Too bad meatloaf's the only thing I can make."

"I thought you said you were a jack of all trades!" Falco chuckled.

"Well, I AM a jack of all trades! Cooking just isn't one of them."

"Meh, fine with me. I'll just have some of the…stuff...Do you guys have any pop back there?"

"Ace's tryin' to make a mortar shell that's fired using soda and some weird candy the humans eat. 'Mantoes' I think. He says it causes all this fizz that could be stemmed downwards for propulsion. We won't have any soda for a while."

"'Mantoes'?" Falco screwed up his face as Adder got a plate of meatloaf ready for him. "That sounds _sooo_ appetizing. You have mochas?"

"Yeah," the serpent answered, "I'll get it for ya."

As Adder disappeared behind the corner, Falco took a fork from the rack and poked the meatloaf a few times. Suddenly, a series of shotgun blasts caused Falco to jump, dropping his plate of meatloaf crashing to the ground. The pit viper-cobra hybrid rounded the corner carrying a dead Hunter in his left arm and his signature shotgun in the right.

"I don't think we're going to have coffee for a few weeks," Adder dropped the body. "Water?"

"Fine, fine," he sighed. "Just don't tell me a Hunter's there, too."

After a few seconds, the clumsy cook returned with a plastic cup of water and looked down at the mess on the ground, sighing, "I'll just get you another plate. Don't drop it this time."

Promptly after receiving a new plate of food, Falco headed over to a table where Ace and Leon were sitting. They stared at the meatloaf on his plate with squinted eyes.

"Adder's meatloaf?" Ace asked.

"Adder's meatloaf," Falco nodded glumly. "This stuff looks like it came from the toilet!"

Apparently hearing this, Adder yelled, "Hey, I do my best, alright?" Then realizing who just walked up to the counter, he apologized. "Oh, sorry about that, Cris…"

"Whatever," Falco shrugged, and then took in a forkful of the stuff. After swallowing, he laid his fork down and pushed the plate away. The stuff tasted like a cross between gelatin and burnt food.

"Well," Ace put a hand to his face, "at least he tries. So what's up, fellow ace of the skies?"

"Nutin' much," Falco yawned, "sleepin' late, listening to music, watchin' the tellie…The usual. You?"

"Eh, working on a new project with Slippy that we've just finished. Oh, and letting Leon here test a few of my weapons."

"And what beautiful ones they are," the chameleon cracked a smile. "I enjoy being the tester of your creations."

"You haven't changed a bit, lizard boy," Falco grinned and shook his head. "I can't help but like ya."

"Don't push it…" he looked away, then at the plate. "You gonna eat that?"

"Umm…no…"

"Good," Leon started digging into it, "I'm famished."

"How can you eat that stuff?!" Ace leaned away from the lizard.

"I lost most of my sense of taste when a Molotov cocktail exploded next to me and I stupidly kept my mouth open. Quite painful, to say the least."

"Wouldn't you have third-degree burns…or be dead already?" Falco raised an eyebrow.

"The miracles of medical technology," Leon spoke between mouthfuls. "Just look at Aloysius."

"Hello, guys," Panther walked up and sat down with a platter of meatloaf. "What did I miss?"

"Nutin' much," Ace stared at the horrible excuse for food Panther was about to eat and whispered. "I think you should give that to Leon."

"Why?"

His question was answered as Marcus ran past them and into the hallway where the restrooms were located. After the slamming of a door, the "lovely" sounds of regurgitation could be heard.

"You know what?" Panther pushed his plate toward Leon. "I found out why."

"I think I should just ask," said Adder from behind the counter. "Who votes that I shouldn't cook anymore after this?" Everyone raised their hands, even Aloysius and Xamuros, who were staring at Marcus coming out of the lavatory.

"Um," Brutus went up to him, "no offense, sir... just let me do it before we all get food poisoning."

"Anyways," Panther turned to Ace, "I heard you and Slippy were working on a project together. So what're you two doing?"

"You'll find out eventually," Ace crossed his arms and sneered. "Sooner or later, you'll find out."

"I'm guessing it's a new weapon," Falco tilted his head. "Knowing Ace, it probably is."

"Close. Very, very close."

Suddenly, ROB clamored over the intercom, "Incoming message from Generals Pepper, Hare, and Halcyon. All teams to the command deck for briefing immediately."

"Actually, it seems you guys are going to get to see 'em pretty soon," Ace got out of the bench. "Well, don't just sit there all day! Come on, let's move!"

The remaining fighter aces got out of the benches and dashed for the teleporter, which transported them to the command deck. There, they jumped from the railing and down onto the lower level as everyone else filed into the command chairs and ROB clacked away at his console.

"I'm serious," Adder growled, "I _am_ going to remove those stairs if you guys just keep jumping to the lower level like that."

"Aw, cool off," Cris rolled her eyes and made a swatting motion with her hand. "Just let them have fun!"

"Opening communications channel now," ROB spoke as he typed away to the console on his right. "Activating hologram projector."

The room darkened and the holoprojector lifted from the center of the lower level on cue. As a black screen covered all windows, it hummed to life, displaying three holographic panels revealing the three generals. Each had a serious expression etched on their faces.

"The channel is secure, sir," Halcyon told Pepper. "We are clear."

"Very good," the bloodhound nodded, then continued, "Now, members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf- now is the time to end the war and-"

"Please excuse my interruption, sir," Xamuros cut in, "but are we _absolutely_ sure that this is the _final_ battle? After all, it clearly wasn't the case with Research Facility Gamma."

"Intel proves that there are no humans on our planets and moons," General Hare assured him. "We're sure that the humans have either withdrawn to the shipyards or to an unknown location."

"Still, Peppy," the canine sighed, "we can't all be sure. We've all fallen into Iradanus' traps during these critical moments. Let's just say that this is a 'critical' battle before we confirm that it is indeed the final one.

"Back to the point, I'm sure that you know already that the shipyards are located on Macbeth and in Sector Z. We already have the exact coordinates of their location, and our forces are ready to strike. However, in your case, you have to work out amongst yourselves a way to divide your teams into two separate groups- one for taking on the shipyards in Sector Z and one for taking the other on Macbeth. Seeing as one is in the vacuum of space and the other is over a ferrous planet, it's quite obvious that this is going to be an aerial battle (the four fighter aces smiled at this).

"The mission, though critical to our success in the war, has very simple objectives. First and foremost, destroy these so-called 'Gargantuans.' If…Oxan (he looked down for a moment saying the name)…was correct, then they are enormous threats to the Lylat System and must be taken down first. Other than the fact that they are battleships, we know nothing of them- all information regarding its weaponry, size, firepower, defenses, strengths, and weaknesses remain unknown. We have to figure out how to destroy them along the way, as we- yet again- have no clue what we're up against.

"Now for secondary objectives. Short and simple- destroy as much human ordinance as possible and capture or kill Iradanus and/or Oikonny if the opportunity presents itself. I doubt we should need to go into explanation of the first, but the second has some…conditions. If the opportunity presents itself, capture them rather than killing them. Even in this extreme stage of the war, we're still left in the dark on the humans' motivations and their plans, so it's best we get them both alive. If you're unable to capture them or if they prove too risky to capture, then you are cleared to terminate them. If you're unable to neither kill nor capture even one of them, there could be a chance of rapid retaliation from the humans after we…if we defeat them."

"I'm sorry we couldn't be of more use," Peppy sighed. "Intelligence reports on the enemy are quite limited at the moment, and our scouts were eliminated seconds after they arrived at the coordinates."

"Heh," Falco closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head. "What else is new? We're going up against enemy forces that we have little info on. Big deal. We've pulled through worse."

"You're takin' this quite nicely," Tallon shook his head in disbelief, "considering the stakes. Don't you realize that the casualties could be immense due to our lack of intel?"

"Young McCloud is correct," Halcyon agreed. "Our only hope lies within the information Oxan has given us and luck itself. If everything goes right…which it probably will not…then this should not be too costly of a battle. As I said, though, it will probably be a battle full of losses."

"Anyways," Pepper turned to the teams, "we all wish you luck. This battle could very well decide the fate of the Lylat System. Give it your all in it, and hope for the best. Pepper over and out."

As the bloodhound's panel disappeared, Peppy cracked a smile and spoke, "Well, see you on the battlefield, fellas. Try not to let this old man down, alright? Heh, Hare over and out."

The last to remain, Halcyon simply said, "Farewell, and good luck. Halcyon over and-"

"Wait just a minute," Xamuros stopped him, "If this is an aerial battle, then what am I supposed to do? I can't fly without hands!"

"Hm," the brown-feathered avian put a hand to his beak in thought, "I seemed to have overlooked that."

"Ah, don't worry," Slippy got out of his seat, "I got it covered, just you wait."

"Good," the general nodded. "I will see you at the battlefield in Sector Z. Before I go, I must ask…ROB, you have the coordinates already, I assume?"

"That is correct, general," the yellow droid answered. "I have them downloaded into the slipstream trajectory archive."

"Excellent. Farewell. Halcyon over and out."

As the lights turned back on and the black screens over the windows retracted, the holoprojector shut off and sunk beneath the floor. The commandos rose from their seats, and Fox spoke, "Well, the first thing we need to work out is how to divvy up the teams. I know Slippy isn't going to participate in the battle, but if he's right about Xamuros, we can count him in."

"That gives us fourteen, then," Wolf nodded. "An even number. This is still going to take a bit, though. Hey, Xamuros, you're good at doin' this kind of stuff. Whadda ya think?"

The Spade thought for a moment, and then stated, "First of all, I suggest that Adder, Brutus, Ace, and Leon are to go to Sector Z. Being cold-blooded, I believe it should be so- even with temperature regulation devices, they can't fight as effectively on Macbeth. Wolf and Panther are to go there as well, since I would assume that they would work better together with Leon. We may also need some added long-range support, so Cris should also go along. Everyone else should go for Macbeth, including myself."

"May I ask why my entire team is headed to Macbeth?" Fox inquired.

"It isn't considered wise to split up teams when it's not needed, which is also the reason why all of Star Wolf is going to Sector Z. I believe that those who have worked together for a long time should remain so for the best compatibility."

"So why am I with you and Star Fox?" Aloysius asked.

"The Sector Z group has many of the heavy guns already. We need at least one Bloody Maw over on Macbeth. So is everyone alright with the plan?"

"I have no objections," Adder shrugged. "I don't see why we should change it."

"That's because you're going with Cr-" Aloysius started, but stopped when the serpent gave him a harsh glance. "Uh…never mind. Sorry, sir."

"It's fine by me, too," Wolf tilted his head sideways for a moment. "Fox?"

"Seems good to me," the vulpine leader spoke. "I see nothing wrong with it."

"Then it's settled," Xamuros gave a short nod. "Adder, Brutus, Ace, Cris, Wolf, Panther, and Leon will head to Sector Z. Fox, Krystal, Marcus, Tallon, Falco, Aloysius, and I will go to Macbeth. Now I believe there's a slight problem- I can't pilot an aircraft, and my Longsword configuration is limited to land travel."

"Well," Ace smiled, "we can fix that. Slips, I believe it's time to show 'em our project."

"I told you- stop calling me that," the frog sighed. "But, yes. Everyone, let's get to the hangar. Fellow Star Fox members…I think you'll all like what we've done."

"Somethin' to do with our fighters?" Falco asked.

"I wouldn't be telling you guys to go to the hangar if we made new armor or weapons! Let's go!"

Falco rolled his eyes and headed into the teleporter, as did everyone else. After a few moments, they reappeared in the elevator room, where they filed into three different elevators and descended to the hangar. Once there, they hurried into the spacious room as Ace and Slippy ran out in front.

"Now, I realize that Star Fox's fighters are noticeably weaker than our Bloody Maws and Star Wolf's Wolfen variations," Ace began, leading them to what looked like a row of garages, "so Slips and I did a little tuning up on yours for quite a while. In short, we drastically upgraded your fighters to be on par with the Bloody Maw, and in certain aspects, even surpassing it."

"Somehow I knew it had somethin' to do with our fighters," Falco smirked. "Well, don't just leave us waiting! Show us what ya did!"

"Hee hee!" the albino giggled. "A little eager, aren't we? Fine, fine. First up, may I present you the next generation of fighter tech- the Arwing Model Three!" With that, he mashed down a large, red button near the first garage door, causing the door to rise with a drawn-out series of creaks. Once the door was fully lifted, Falco couldn't help but whistle at the fighter that lay within.

The Arwing III had the same, narrow shape of the main body. In fact, it seemed as if nothing about the main body had changed, aside from becoming slightly narrower- even the blue-and-white color scheme remained practically unchanged. However, the four G-diffusers had been integrated into the single rear engine, jutting diagonally outwards from the corners of the thruster (in a manner mostly similar to the Wolfen's rear engine G-diffusers). The single laser cannon that was ordinarily mounted at the prow was gone, instead replaced with two heavy-duty laser autocannons on either side of the cockpit that extended to about half the fighter's total length, which roughly two hovercars long from thruster to nose. On the underside was a strange, long-barreled weapon with a huge laser charge behind it. This weapon was flanked on the right with a bomb launcher.

"Yeah, I figured you be staring at it," Slippy rolled his eyes. "Well, the Arwing III's G-diffuser system has been altered from its past variations, so bear with me. Instead, it's been integrated into the engine itself, adding even more power to the thrusters, though slightly downgrading its maneuverability and braking power. Its afterburn time has been significantly lengthened as well from this. We've also managed to upgrade the shield system, and now there's no need to worry about plasma fire until it's been exhausted. Now for your favorite parts- the weapons. As you can tell, the single laser cannon has been replaced with heavy-duty laser autocannons, giving it much more firepower. Along with a bomb launcher, we've also had the added liberty of incorporating a new homing directed laser beam cannon. It's just as simple as locking on with laser missiles beforehand- just get the enemy in the crosshairs while pulling the trigger, and then release- no need to charge. By combining DE and laser technology, we've developed a laser that homes in on its target. Still, after releasing the trigger, you must quickly press and hold it again, and as long as you keep the trigger pressed, it'll seek whatever signature was last in the crosshairs. Even then, after making contact with the enemy fighter, you can keep the trigger pressed to keep on damaging it. Just bear in mind that it does overheat after a bit. Well, I hope you're happy, Fox. Next is yours, Falco. Meet the Sky Slash."

"Sweet," the avian grinned. "So what did you do to…Oh…my…God…"

The fighter that he now stared wide-eyed at was nothing short of, as Falco would have put it, "wicked". The main body was as thin as could be- a bit wider than two feet at the widest point- and there were three plasma engines in the rear, each stacked in the formation of a triangle. The four G-diffusers were no longer a part of the rear- now they had been transformed into small wings that were jutting off of the main wings at forty-five-degree angles- one above and below either wing, which still retained the feathery-tipped design, but were now facing backward instead of forward. The single laser cannon was gone, replaced with a railgun that was built into the hooked nose. What looked like chainguns were attached to either side of the cockpit near gigantic vents. Like the Arwing III, a bomb launcher and larger homing DLB cannon was bolted to the underside. The best part to Falco was that all parts that were originally colored white were now painted red- his favorite color.

"You want speed?" Slippy elbowed Falco out of his trance. "This thing _is_ speed. In short, this fighter is _the_ fastest fighter in our current arsenal- faster than even the Omega configuration of the Bloody Maw. The power of the afterburner is practically off the charts on today's standards, though maneuverability is significantly lowered while boosting. Even when not using the afterburn, this thing is still a force to be reckoned with- it has laser chainguns, a light railgun, a bomb launcher, and a multi-lock enabled homing DLB cannon. Still, its shields, though plasma-absorbent, are pretty below average, but I don't think someone like you (he patted Falco's back) would need to worry about it. Moving on, next is your new fighter, Krystal. Introducing the Cloudskater."

The next garage door revealed a stunning fighter. The main body was elevated several feet off the ground, due to the upside-down V-shaped wings beneath it that pointed diagonally backwards. These wings were accompanied by two more that were similar in design to the original Arwing's wing design, although curving backwards like the two below it. There wasn't any engine in the back of the main body- instead, it appeared as if the engines had been integrated into the very wings themselves, resulting in thin strips of energy that ran across the back edge of the wings. Just like in Krystal's Cloud Runner, it had twin lasers, which were bolted between either side's wings. A bomb dropper could be seen on the underside above a curved extension of some sort.

"Man, it's just looks so freakin' cool every time I look at it," Ace sighed happily. "See those wings? Well, they aren't. Those, in fact, are G-diffusers. Being turned into wing-engine thingies…sorry about the fourth-grade vocabulary, it's just I don't want to get too technical. Anyways, since the G-diffusers were turned into wing-engine thingies, the Cloudskater boasts unparalleled maneuverability. Even at top speed, this thing can make a complete U-turn in one-and-a-half seconds. Plus, it received the name since this engine system gives off a noise like someone skating on ice. Even though it looks brittle, it's got about as much shielding as the Arwing III. The only thing that's been slightly downgraded is the total boost output, which means it isn't as fast as other fighters. Still, a twin laser system, bomb launcher, and sonic pulse emitter is mighty fine."

Krystal was nodding to herself, then stopped and asked, "Wait, can you run through that last part?"

"What? Sonic pulse emitter? Yeah, you heard me. It's pretty much self-explanatory. It emits a pulse of pure sonic force in a slightly-curved horizontal line. Just make sure no friendlies are in the way. Now for Tallon's- here's the SpliceJaw…but before I continue, did you purposely misspell lockjaw, instead spelling 'L-O-C-H-J-A-W?"

"Heh, you know I'm not dumb enough to spell that wrong," Tallon gave a short laugh. "Well, show me what you got."

The next garage door revealed the newer version of the fighter-bomber. The main body was broader than before and had a curved nose, as opposed to a narrow body with a pointed nose. Apparently, the main body was extremely long as well and had black, serrated line that ran down the middle of it from the nose to a foot in front of the wide windscreen of the cockpit. The G-diffuser design remained unchanged, though there was the addition of another engine. The only other notable things were the wings, which carried no weapons and were slightly wider than before, and the underside bomb bay, which also looked larger. It looked almost like a smaller version of the second _Great Fox_, minus the cockpit and wings.

"I'm guessing something's between those two halves of the main body," Tallon hypothesized. "Well, is one of you going to show us?"

Slippy shrugged, "I might as well explain it first. I know how much you prefer defense and offense over speed and maneuverability, so we upgraded your fighter based on that. This fighter probably has the highest defense rating of all of our fighter's here. In fact, you'd need two bombs from the underside bomb bay to destroy this thing. It's a real juggernaut in battle. Now you were wondering what was between the main body halves, right?" The frog opened the canopy, reached inside, and pulled a lever. This caused the main body to split vertically in half, revealing the inside of the main body. The brownish kitsune only stared at the rows of stacked missile tubes lining the inner edge of the open body. Slippy continued, "Yeah, I know it's awesome. Sixty-four wide-lock, rechargeable missile tubes. Thirty-two inside each half. Microfactories within each one generate ammunition every thirty seconds, but there are so many missile tubes that you can fire constantly. This is a step up from the previous iteration, since this can be opened or closed based on what's needed- closed if you want speed, open in order to attack. Remember, though, this fighter does have a medium-to-long range, since firing missiles in close range is just suicidal. Still, the shielding is strong enough to sustain the impact of ramming another fighter. However, like the ol' Lochjaw, speed and maneuverability is still a problem," He pushed the lever back forward, causing the main body to shut once more. "Moving on- Marcus' new Longstryker."

The next garage showed a fighter with a striking design. The main body, identical to the Arwing III, had three wings- one forming a rear-facing fin at the top of the fighter just behind the cockpit and two wings that curved forward at the lower corners of the main body. Underneath the body and between the two lower wings was something that could be easily described as an artillery cannon that almost reached past the nose with a bomb launcher beneath. The rear engine had been replaced with a more powerful one with G-diffusers integrated into sections of the main body behind it.

"While checking out the Longshot," Ace spoke, "I discovered that the position of the G-diffusers and weak engine lacked what a sniper like Marcus truly needed- mobility and speed. A sniper can't just stay in one general area and fire from there- a true sharpshooter needs to move around in a seemingly random pattern to catch the enemy off-guard. Am I right, or am I right? Of course, I'm right! Anyways, with a few changes here and there, the Longstryker is now much faster and maneuverable, though the shields have been slightly downgraded. And to answer your questions, yes. That is, in fact, an artillery cannon attached to the underside. However, Slips and I removed parts we didn't need to turn this projectile cannon into an ion bolt cannon. Just think of it as a super-sized laser sniper rifle, but instead of lasers, it fires multi-terawatt energy bolts. It just blows regular fighters apart, and it can overload shields and electrical components inside of larger targets with enough shots. Though the bolt hits its target almost instantaneously, it does need time to recharge and it leaves a slight energy trail, so it's wise to get out of the area after firing a shot, much like having to move around after firing a regular sniper rifle. Well, that's pretty much it."

"Hey!" Wolf growled. "What about ours?"

"Um, what _about_ yours?" Ace squinted an eye at the lupine.

"So you two upgraded Team Star Fox's fighters but nobody else's?"

"There was little room for improvement on your team's fighters after I tuned 'em up a year-and-a-half ago before the Anglar War. I mean look at the Red Fang- twin lasers, multi-lock, _and_ bombs! You think I can upgrade it that easily?"

"Wait…," Fox narrowed his eyes. "You're the one who upgraded their fighters before the Anglar War?!"

"Um, yeah. Are you deaf or something? He's good friends with Adder, who's good friends with me, so I tuned 'em up. Is there a problem with that? You don't think that they have the mechanical genius to make such awesome ships, do you?"

"It's just…never mind."

"I'd hate to interrupt," Xamuros stepped in, "but we have a couple of battlefields to get to. And how the heck am I supposed to go around shooting down Harbingers and Seraphs-"

"Sera_phim_…" Slippy corrected, but stopped when the field master gave him a cold gaze.

"Fine. Sera_phim_…when I can't even get more than a foot above the ground?"

"Turn into Longsword mode," Slippy answered. "We'll take it from there."

The supersoldier shrugged, then collapsed to the ground and rearranged his body parts, soon finishing the conversion.

"Before we start, where's the thruster?" Ace questioned. Xamuros' response was a short boost forward, causing a glow of light to emit from the back. "Okay, then. Slips, let's get to work! Everyone else, this is going to take a few minutes, so get comfortable."

"How many times do I have to…," the frog rolled his eyes. "Aw, forget it!"

Ace retrieved a face shield, blowtorch, and a soldering iron from his work bench while Slippy went over to a pile of an assortment of mechanical parts and got out what looked like a pair of G-diffusers and a small engine along with several more parts. The albino adorned the face shield and began using the blowtorch on Xamuros' thruster, sending a shower of sparks everywhere. After several seconds, he flipped up the shield's visor and removed the thruster and engine while Slippy replaced it with a new engine and thruster. Another shower of sparks and several bright flashes occurred as Ace welded the metal and soldered the wires of the new parts into place.

Falco began checking out his new fighter as the two mechanics' work intensified. They detached Xamuros' spire-like shoulder attachments and began integrating the G-diffusers inside them and later replaced the spires back into their original positions. After a few more minutes, the Longsword could've been mistaken for a minuscule plane. The G-diffusers and new engine made it look like it could actually fly.

"Alright!" Ace smiled as he removed his face shield. "We're done! With these new attachments, you're now a spaceworthy fighter! Plus, now your Longsword's a little more faster and maneuverable with that new engine and those G-diffusers now! Xamuros, you wanna try it out?"

"So how does it even work?" the golden Spade asked.

"Just boost out into space. That simple. You know how to fly, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Then go ahead and try it out."

Xamuros roared out of the hangar and past the low-power force field that protected the hangar from decompression. After passing into the vacuum of space, he swerved shakily a few times before gaining enough control to make a few jinks and loops.

"Well, Ace," Slippy elbowed the serpent's hip (it was as far as he could reach), "I think we did alright."

The Spade returned back into the hangar and converted back to his bipedal form, which also caused the G-diffusers to retract back inside his shoulder extensions. He simply spun his head around.

"I have to admit," he spoke, "that was one of the best thrills I've had for a while!"

"That's good to hear," Ace grinned, "especially after submitting the conversion procedure to ULS Engineering. By the time we get to the battlefield, there should be hundreds of Spades ready to fly and blow up some fighters."

"Which brings up something I've been wondering about- how the heck am I going to shoot down enemy fighters?"

"I don't think you need to," Slippy replied. "When you get near a fighter, just turn back into your bipedal form, get on to it, and start blasting away! Or, if you're the reckless type like Falco, you could always just ram into 'em."

"Hey," Falco shot the amphibian an angry glance, "better reckless than being a sucker at flying!"

"Alright, that's enough," Fox stepped in between them. "Let's not keep the generals waiting- everyone into your fighters!"

* * *

While Star Fox clambered into their new starfighters and those of Star Serpent headed into the armory to get into their flight gear; the members of Star Wolf headed for the separate part of the hangar that contained their Wolfens. The holding chamber consisted of a long runway with the low-level force field leading into space outside and the three's individual Wolfen variations at the other, a blast shield behind each of the ships' engines. Backup Wolfens could be seen dangling from service clamps overhead.

Leon sprang up the ladder into his arrow-shaped Rainbow Delta, skipping rungs as he went before pushing it off. Once inside, he mashed a button to caused the canopy to close over his head, and he brought the safety restraints down onto his shoulders and chest. He then followed up with pre-flight procedures: powering up the engines, charging up the shields and the wide-lock laser missile system; bringing up the HUD (heads-up display), and establishing communications with Wolf and Panther.

"This is Wolf to Panther and Leon," the lupine leader spoke over the radio. "Come in, this is Wolf. All wings report in. Over."

"This is Leon," the chameleon called out, "reporting in. Over."

"This is Panther," came the wildcat's voice, "reporting in. Over."

"Alright, then," said Wolf. "Status check. Over."

"All systems functioning at one-hundred percent," Leon complied. "Status: green. Over."

"The Black Rose is go," went Panther. "Status: green, over."

"Then we're set," Wolf spoke. "This is Wolf to Command Deck, I repeat- this is Wolf to Command Deck. Over."

"This is Command Deck, I read you, Wolf," ROB clamored. "What is your status? Over."

"Status: green all. We're set to launch. Over"

"Understood. Initiating launch sequence. Stand by. Over."

"Standing by. Over." he now spoke to Leon and Panther. "Well, guys, it's been a while, now. Is everyone ready for the first fighter mission in months?"

"You bet," Leon smirked. "Did we really have to go through that whole 'over' thing, though?"

"Mm, not really, but it sure brings back memories of the good 'ol days."

"Heh," Panther huffed, "'good 'ol days'? You can save the memories until _after_ you make sure you come back alive!"

"Ah, whatever! ROB! How's it coming at the CD (command deck)? Over."

"You are set to launch," the robot reported. "Safeties released. You may launch whenever you are ready. Over."

"Understood," Wolf acknowledged. "See you after we win. Over and out."

"_If_ we win," Leon corrected. "It's not everyday you face the remnants of an entire planet's army."

"You know, I really hate it when you're so pessimistic," Wolf growled as the bright lights of the runway turned into a dark shade of red. "Alright, launch when ready!"

Leon punched his throttle to the max, causing the Rainbow Delta to burst forward with a tremendous roar down the runway before lifting off into space alongside Wolf and Panther. Once outside, the chameleon eased off on the throttle to normal speed. The Star Wolf squadron flew in Delta formation (V-shaped formation, with Wolf taking point) towards the bow of the _Dreadnought_, where they got into position with Star Serpent, minus Aloysius, who was with Xamuros and the Star Fox team.

"Well, Adder," Wolf chuckled, "we're flying together again, just like old times!"

"Yeah, whatever," the veteran sighed. "I can see you aren't at all daunted by the fact that the upcoming battle could decide the fate of the Lylat System."

"I just focus on whatever's in front of me. You know how I am."

"Hm. ROB. Slippy. We need two slipstream rifts- one for the Sector Z shipyards and one for Macbeth's."

"Alright," came the mechanic's voice. "Entering coordinates, initiating rift creation sequence… Okay, ROB, fire the riftcutter! First one's for the Sector Z team!"

"Firing," announced the robot. The familiar, thin beam of energy shot out into space, where it generated an explosion seconds after, creating a rift in the space-time continuum. Inside the orange-bordered, irregularly-shaped rift sparkled myriad, violet particles common to the area known as Sector Z.

"Alright, Sector Z team," Slippy spoke, "you're clear!"

"You heard him, guys," Adder called out. "Let's go! ROB, Slippy; keep the _Dreadnought_ out of harm's way and stay here, alright?"

The frog sighed in reluctance, "Fine. Good luck, guys."

"Well, everyone," Wolf started. "This is the moment we've been waiting for. The moment of truth is upon us, and the fate of the Lylat System could very well be in our hands. So let's get moving and start kickin' those humans off our turf!"

Leon relaxed his body as white light filled his vision while he and his fighter were being converted into beams of energy, as was everyone else on the Sector Z team. Shortly following this intense light came a moment of darkness. When he regained consciousness, he looked through the Rainbow Delta's windscreen to see hundreds…no, thousands of Lylatian space vessels, Spades, and fighters all primed to strike and in formation amongst a multitude of violet particles…but that's all that was happening. There weren't any explosions or weapon fire that the viashino had been expecting to hear and see the moment they entered the battlefield. Nothing was going on.

"Something's not right," Leon murmured to himself. "We should be taking hits already…"

"Can whoever's in charge here please tell me what's going on?!" shouted Adder over the radio.

"This is General Halcyon to Commander McBannon," the avian general's voice sounded. "We have a slight problem."

"And what would that be, sir?" Wolf asked.

"Take a look for yourself, soldier."

Leon swerved to the left in order to see past the flotilla of military vessels barring his view and exhaled a breath of rage and disappointment, as did everyone else who had come. In front of them were the remains of what looked like a massive construction site. The shipyards were formed out of a maze of glowing, red lines that remained suspended in space that was as wide and far as the eye could see. Gigantic service clamps laid abandoned everywhere, as did construction equipment, all derelict in space. Whatever the humans had been building in the shipyards was long gone. They were too late.

* * *

During the early stages after the birth of the Lylat System, where a young Solar and planetoids ruled the vast region, what would soon be known as Macbeth was a young star. It seemed as if it and Solar would create a binary system- a solar system composed to two stars. However, the immense gravity field the two created caused many other would-be planets to plunge into them. While Solar, already a young star, withstood the celestial bombardment, the protostar Macbeth was not as fortunate. It couldn't stand up to the beating and lost much of its heat, causing it to forever loose the chance of ever becoming a star. Strangely, its field of gravity was still extremely strong and caused more and more planetoids to continue to mash into it, eventually piling on top of one another. Though it wasn't enough to make Macbeth known as a star, the immense heat formed through the friction of gravity and its close proximity to Solar built up and turned the planetoids stuck to it into ferrous material, eventually building up a core. Retaining its heat, still more planetoids were sucked into the steadily-growing lava planet until only those far enough to escape the clutches of its gravity remained. Even then, the magma surrounding Macbeth's core did not cool to form a mantle or a crust. Apparently, hydrogen left over from its early starhood fueled the flaming planet- also apparently enough to keep it from forming any solid ground for a good, long time. For eons, the planet still burned bright against meteor impacts, use as a source of geothermal energy and a factory planet by the Lylatians, and the test of time…Then the humans moved in.

The Macbeth that the Star Fox squadron, Xamuros, and Aloysius arrived to see had changed drastically over a period of just several months. The strain of the energy siphon was too much, and the supply of hydrogen had been exhausted with the last of its planetary energy. What was left was now a totally inhospitable sphere of blackened charcoal. The core of the planet had burned out forevermore. No longer did warmth and light radiate from it almost like a second sun. The lava planet, now only a charred, brittle husk…was truly dead.

"Oh, gods…," Krystal lamented at the sight of Macbeth, "what have the humans done to it?"

"The planet you knew as Macbeth was the first planet to be siphoned," Xamuros explained. "Due to the head start, the humans were also able to complete the entire siphoning cycle. Planets that haven't lost all of their energy will regenerate it over time. Those that have…all end up like this. It's too late now. Macbeth has been lost. Damn, if I'd known that the heat was no longer a factor I would've organized differently…"

"That means that there are dozens of planets in this galaxy and others just like these who have fallen victim to the humans," Fox sighed, causing a hiss of static over the comm. "We have to stop this once and for all. Come on, everybody. A shipyard couldn't be too hard to find, especially not with half of the United Lylat System fleet there as well. Let's go."

As Falco pushed the engines of his new Sky Slash slightly, still staring at the dark sphere that had once been a famous planet of the Lylat System. _Those humans are going to pay for this,_ he thought. _We won't let them get away with turning this and other planets into lifeless rocks._

After a few minutes, after they came around the planet, they spotted a glint of red light. As they rounded the corner, the glint of light grew into the maze of reddish energy that was the Macbeth shipyard, which spanned the entire half of the dead planet, as well as the ULS forces there. However, they weren't firing- no one was. They were just staying idle in space.

As they eventually joined up with the flotilla of ships, Xamuros asked over the radio, "What is going on here? Why isn't anyone shooting?"

"This is General Hare," came Peppy's voice. "Xamuros, that's you right? I'm afraid we're too late. The humans are long gone."

"What?!" Falco screamed. "You're kidding me! They're _gone?!_"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," the leporine general said. "Either they finished construction on those Gargantuans or they moved somewhere else. Whatever the case, we've got nothing else to do here but to return to base."

"Dammit!" Tallon yelled, the slamming of his fist audible. "Those humans got away again! It's just like Research Facility Gamma!"

"Yeah, but…," Xamuros started, but paused. He appeared to be thinking for a bit before continuing, "…but this isn't like Iradanus…There should be some sort of trap waiting for...Oh, damn…"

"What?" Falco tried to urge the field master to give an answer. "What's wrong?"

"General Hare," the altered human addressed the CO, "how many ships are we supposed to have here?"

"Uh, let me check…," after a few seconds, he replied, "approximately a total of four-hundred-sixty-seven, including all Spades and fighters. Why do you ask?"

"I count six-hundred-forty-two."

Falco squinted his eyes, wondering as to what was wrong, but he saw it. One of the Cornerian fighters near them flickered slightly, as did a couple hundred more around the fleet. That's when everyone realized what was going on.

"Oh, sh-" Falco began, but was cut off as the Cornerian fighter near him gave away to the appearance of a Hunter, which sped forward and landed just in front of his fighter's cockpit, its drill and DPB cannon ready. Before anyone else could react, all hell broke loose. Hunters materialized from what was thought to be friendly fighters and Spades; Seraphim appeared from slipstream rifts along with Harbinger fighters. Within seconds, the entire fleet was swarming with enemy fighters and spaceborne Hunters. What was a calm, desolate place a moment ago was now a battlefield the next. "Somehow, I knew something like this would happen."

* * *

Things weren't going well at Sector Z either. Seraphim, Drones, and Harbingers had appeared out of nowhere through slipstream rifts, catching the entire fleet by surprise. Explosive fireworks were accompanied by lasers, plasma bolts, missiles, and railgun beams, creating a lightshow of bright flashes.

For Leon, this was a bittersweet situation. On one hand, he could kill tons of enemy fighters and Drones, all the while reveling in the death with sadistic glee. However, on the other hand, they'd fallen into a trap. Again_._ He didn't really ponder of this for too long, as he simply kept the trigger on yoke pressed, causing dozens of laser missiles to burst from the prow of his Rainbow Delta and pummel into the targeted adversaries. Every few seconds or so, targeting reticules would blot out nearly his entire HUD for a second or two and then release the barrage of deadly projectiles. The cycle repeated over and over again, and all he had to do was avoid incoming fire and enjoy the show.

"You know," Leon smiled to himself, "this is sort of fun."

"I hope you noticed that the radio's still on," came Panther's tone. "And besides, all you need to do is keep the trigger pressed down while he actually have to aim and fire."

"So? It helps, if you couldn't tell."

"Hmph. Just remember to check your six every so often."

_Whatever_, the lizard rolled his eyes and just concentrated on avoiding as much fire as possible. Suddenly, his ship jerked, and he looked back with an eye. Through the back of the canopy, he could see a Seraph unloading its directed energy into him. _Pest._ Still keeping the trigger pressed, he pulled down on the yoke, bringing the Rainbow Delta into a loop. Hoping to catch the enemy fighter off guard, he was surprised to see it vanish the moment he achieved lock on it. It merely reappeared behind him and continued the barrage. _Interesting…an ace, huh? This is going to be exciting..._

"Leon!" shouted Wolf. "You've got one on your six!"

"I know, I know," the chameleon retorted. "Don't worry…just leave him to me."

Leon boosted forward until he was directly over a Cornerian capital ship, then performed an air brake by pulling down on the yoke and cutting the engines for a moment. This caused him to suddenly shoot up for a moment before he dropped, reactivated his engines, and flipped over into an inverted dive (he basically turned upside-down, and then dived). The maneuver was a bit more difficult to perform in space due to the lack of air, but Leon made it look like an everyday task. As expected the Seraph dived after him, firing its DEB cannon in short bursts. However, as the pilot discovered, the strange-looking fighter he was giving chase to was becoming harder and harder to hit, now since defense turrets on the capital ship it was diving for were now taking aim at him, causing him to take evasive action himself.

When the Seraph broke off of its attack and jumped back into slipstream to get out of range of the defense turrets, the pilot had made his first mistake. Seeing this, Leon performed an air brake maneuver again, then punched his engines when he was in the middle of it. This caused him to immediately break from his dive and shoot back up…right to where the manta-shaped fighter had reappeared. He was able to get two laser missiles onto him before he disappeared again. The weak missiles wouldn't kill it, but the damage he had caused gave Leon a slight advantage now.

As predicted, the Seraph rematerialized on Leon's six again, and the chameleon performed another air brake. Not able to react in time, the Seraph suffered from another laser missile hit as the Rainbow Delta shot over it. Not wanting to waste energy, the pilot merely performed his own air brake and plunged for the annoying Lylatian. However, while he himself had performed an air brake, so had Leon, and now the Seraph ace was left with four missile hits.

Leon watched as the hunter suddenly became the hunted, as the Seraph was desperately trying to get away while his slipstream rift generator recharged. He watched as the pilot swerved wildly to avoid getting hit with his already-low shields. Unfortunately, he didn't know a thing about what a wide-lock was. A final green laser missile streaked for the Seraph and slammed into it. The projectile had burned through the shields and into the rear engine. What would have just resulted in a flaming rear in an atmosphere resulted in immediate decompression in space. The Seraph crumpled into a ball for a moment before turning into a giant, orange blossom of fire the next. The fire was quickly extinguished in the vacuum of space, leaving just a small debris field for Leon to shoot around.

_Well that was a waste of my time, _he thought as he went back to the task of blowing up fighter after fighter and Drone after Drone with his wide-lock laser missiles.

* * *

After successfully shaking the Hunter off, Falco had been shooting down Harbingers and Seraphim. Every so often, another Hunter would land on his ship, and he'd have to waste several seconds trying to shake him off before resuming the task. Normally, he liked a challenge while in the cockpit of an Arwing, but now, it was just plain annoying.

In the corner of his vision, the blue-feathered avian spotted a Fichinan battleship get swarmed by seven Harbingers at the other side of the battlefield. Though the plasma cannons wouldn't harm the battleship itself, they could pass through and hit the personnel inside; at the moment, they were heading for the command deck.

_Well, _Falco thought, _it's time to see just how fast Slippy said this thing can go._ He turned for the battleship and pushed the throttle into max afterburn. The G-diffuser wings now pointed all the way back, and the ensuing burst of speed caused him to be pushed all the way back into his seat. He found he could barely move his head while he saw the battlefield pass by in a blur. An unfortunate Hunter just happened to be in his way, and was literally disintegrated as he boosted right through it, the yellow blood instantly turning to vapor in the vacuum.

The ace pilot eased off on the throttle, reaching the battleship in mere seconds and intercepting the formation of Harbingers. He held down the top left trigger of the yoke, causing the targeting reticule on his HUD to glare red. He quickly passed the reticule over each Harbinger, and then depressed and pressed the trigger again. Seven, curved lasers arched from the underside DLB cannon and ripped the fighters to shreds after a few seconds just as Aloysius' Bloody Maw passed under him.

"Dangit, Falco!" he growled. "Those were gonna be mine!"

"Ah, well," the avian rolled his eyes, "too slow."

Suddenly, a loud series of warning beeps went off as the shield readings on the HUD fell by ten percent. As he wondered what could be happening, a Harbinger shot over him from the left, the plasma bolts dispersing on the Sky Slash's energy shields.

"Oh, you wanna go?" Falco sneered. "Let's dance, human!"

The avian swerved right in pursuit of the ghoulish fighter and opened fire with his chainguns, emitting a harsh series of whines as the whirling barrels let loose a dense stream of lasers toward the hapless target. The Harbinger merely jinked (jerked diagonally up and down) to avoid the majority of the shots, then performed a U-turn and boosted for him while firing.

_A game of chicken, eh?_ Falco thought. _This should be interesting._ He boosted forward as well and was again slammed back into the seat with the burst of speed. He kept firing with his chainguns as did the Harbinger with its plasma bolts. Falco simply spun into a barrel roll, harmlessly deflecting the projectiles while the human pilot half-rolled to let the lasers go past him. For the first time in a while, the avian was actually disoriented by the dizzying speed combined with the tight spin he was in. He broke out of the barrel roll and watched as the enemy fighter barely missed him, the tip of its wing passing just inches over his canopy. Falco and the human both U-turned to face each other again. Suddenly, a Hunter landed on top of his ship.

"Aw, dangit!" Falco shouted. "Not again!"

The ace tried to shake off the Hunter, but it held on and now began drilling into the Sky Slash's shields. Falco braked, causing the monster to stagger backwards, then fell off as he boosted away. The avian performed a U-turn, getting both the Harbinger and the Hunter in his sights when two missiles slammed into both of them, creating a debris field for him to fly over and covered the windscreen with yellow vapor for a moment.

"Hey!" Falco whined. "You stole my kills!"

"Well, I didn't see your name on them!" Tallon joked. "This time, I guess _you're_ too slow!"

"Don't let it get to your head, bro," Marcus said, just as a sparkling sphere of energy blew apart the fighter behind the fighter-bomber, leaving a faint trail of electricity. Moments later, the Longstryker boosted for a new position. "That's another one you owe me for."

"Kids," Falco muttered to himself. "What can you do?"

He sat back in his seat for preparation and boosted again for a Kewan carrier being harassed by Seraphim. He pulled the lower left trigger on the yoke after easing off the throttle, causing a bright, green railgun blast erupt from the Sky Slash's nose, catching one off guard and destroying it. While the rest of the Seraphim continued attacking the carrier, two broke off and began double-teaming against Falco.

_This oughta be fun, _he smiled, but was interrupted by the comm, causing him to curse as he dispatched the fighters.

"Guys, I think this is enough," came Peppy's voice. "We don't have anything to gain here if we keep fighting, so I've received authorization from Command to retreat. Everyone head back to base via slipstream. Xamuros, you too. Star Fox and Aloysius, I'm also going to generate a separate rift for guys. Make sure you aren't followed."

"Understood, general," Fox acknowledged. "Alright, team. Let's head back to the _Dreadnought_. Krystal, I want you to use that sonic pulse emitter you have to keep us from being followed, alright? We already have enough Hunters as is on the ship."

"Got it," the telepath replied. "Just go on first."

As Falco sped on ahead, he looked back to watch the new weapon in action…and gritted his teeth as his and everyone else's hearing became nothing more than a dull ring from the attack. An invisible wave of sonic force struck at the fighters and Hunters trying to follow them and other ships, creating a massive display of explosions and yellow vapor. Though originally intended for use in a medium, the pulse emitter's overall range was intensified due to the vacuum of space. The vixen kept up the attacks as the team sped into the rift, converting into beams of energy that zoomed through, then she did so herself just as it closed.

* * *

Leon was busy tailing a few Seraphim when Halcyon shouted over the radio, "Everyone, this battle is pointless. I have received authorization from Command to retreat. We have nothing left to do here. Let us leave. All units, generate slipstream rifts back to base and generate one for the members of Star Wolf and Star Serpent."

_Oh, now Command authorizes a retreat!_ Leon hissed to himself as he dispatched a final Seraph, then regrouped with the rest of Star Wolf. Four Bloody Maws joined them shortly after.

"I just can't believe we fell for another trap!" Cris exclaimed. "This happens too dang often!"

"I know," Adder agreed. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"This is the ULS _Pride_ to Star Wolf and Star Serpent," the radio crackled. "We're generating a rift near your position."

"Thanks, _Pride_," Adder responded, then spoke to everyone else. "Star Wolf, get out in front and take the lead into the rift. Team, Tetra formation, now! Cover our departure with our flak cannons!"

Leon sped in front of the Bloody Maws, which were now arranging themselves into a vertical line. The advanced fighters began releasing sharp bits of metal from their rear flak cannons. Some followers were unable to stop just in time, and were sliced by the metal, crumpling and exploding from decompression moments later as the team reached the rift. The lizard's vision became a bright white once more as he and the others were converted into beams of energy and were assimilated by the slipstream rift, which closed soon after.

Promptly after reopening his eyes, Leon sighed, "Pointless battle after pointless battle. Will things ever change around here?"

"Not for you, lizard boy," came Falco's voice over the radio. "Dangit, Ace, that sonic pulse emitter thing is freaking LOUD!"

"Sonic force does break the sound barrier, you know!" Ace made a rebuttal. "So you guys ran into some trouble, too?"

"Yeah," Marcus answered, "Hunters were hiding among the fleet, and Seraphim and Harbingers joined them. You guys?"

"Eh, ran into Seraphim, Drones, and Harbingers," Brutus sighed. "Not much better."

"Man," Aloysius' slamming of his fist was audible, "why does this always happen?! It's like every major battle we have now is a total fake!"

"Still," Adder sighed, "those Gargantuans and humans are still out there. We have to find them, destroy them, and find Iradanus and Oikonny. Slippy, you there?"

"Yeah," the frog replied, "I heard everything. Alright, I'm going to ready the hangar then, and-"

"Greetings, Lylatians," came a familiar voice on open channel. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Iradanus?!" Fox exclaimed in disbelief. "Where are you? Show yourself!"

"What?" Slippy exclaimed, "Iradanus is here?!"

"Well, it's about time you showed up!" Brutus growled. "Slippy! Find the transmission's origin!"

"Good…everyone can hear me," Iradanus began to laugh." Ha-ha-ha! There's no need to find me! I'm coming to _you_!"

"Um….g-g-g-guys…?" Slippy stuttered. "Our energy reading screen just crashed! We have seven HUGE slipstream readings generating from around the system! And one of them's right here! Head away from our position!"

"Crap!" Adder cursed. "Everyone, get out of here! Boost as far as you can!"

As Leon punched the limited afterburn of his Rainbow Delta as far as he could, the space near them began to shimmer like a mirage. To be exact, a mirage that stretched larger than Leon's eyes could see. He pushed the engines to a point where warning signs began to pop up before stopping. And just that moment…the mirage was replaced by the owner that was transporting to that location.

The mirage was now replaced by what looked like an endless seam of grayish metal. Lights glinted from the rooms inside; defense turrets, flak guns, and missile launchers were everywhere. No one could really comprehend its shape since it was so huge, much like the first time Leon ever saw the _Dreadnought _up close…even though right now, they had to be at least a mile away from this behemoth. No one could see past it- it was too high and too long. Even if everyone craned their necks in any direction (minus up, down, and behind them), the grayness of the ship was still there to obscure their vision. The chameleon was able to look behind him to see another of the things what looked like several hundred-thousand miles away... but it was actually large enough to look a yard long from his perspective. They were so colossal- so massive- that even the one furthest from them was visible as an inch-long glint of metal in the corner of his windscreen. However…they looked almost familiar. Then it hit him- the viashino realized they were the ships Oxan displayed on the holoprojector. They were the Gargantuans.

"Hello, lesser beings," Iradanus spoke, his voice more clear due to his close proximity. "Allow me to introduce you to the United Earth _Goliath, Leviathan, Colossus, Hulk, Gigas, Titan, _and _Behemoth_- the Gargantuans!"

"Those giant things…" Krystal's shakily spoke, "a-are battleships?!"

As ULS space vessels arrived on-scene through slipspace around the hulking ships, cries of despair sounded off. Some began firing their weapons at the ship, causing massive explosions…but after the explosive flames died out, not even the turrets had been dented.

"Are you quite finished?" Oikonny's voice gleefully asked. "Hah! Lord Iradanus, they're actually trying to blow us up! Hah, hah, hah!"

"Oikonny's there too?!" Adder growled. "I don't care how hard or how tough these things are! We're taking you down!"

"Amusing," Iradanus spoke. "Quite amusing, indeed. Well, seeing as these Gargantuans are as long as one of your planets' countries and as wide as several hundreds of thousands of your battleships and that they are made from the hardest material in the universe, you should just give up."

"B-but how can you make even half of one in such a short time?!" Pepper's voice asked in disbelief. "It's only been a few weeks! That's not possible!"

"Heh, such is the wonder of planetary energy," Oikonny laughed shortly. "You can create such strong materials in so much abundance in so little time… It's a shame that they're only at fifteen percent of their true power. The most that's functioning is basic life support, security systems, and the engines…at least, for now! Hah, hah, hah!"

"What?" came Xamuros' voice. "What do you mean 'for now'? You've had all your siphoning facilities destroyed or self-destructed them! There's no place for you to get any more energy!"

"You're actually overlooking one, very big source, scum. Think- what could we use as energy?"

"N-no…" Xamuros stammered after a few seconds of thought. "T-that's not possible! You can't do it!"

"What?" General Hare asked. "What are they going to use as energy?"

"I'll answer that," Iradanus replied. "The one thing that provides light and warmth- the one thing that has given your planets life- …Solar…your system's star."

* * *

* * *

Pretty much my last attempt to create a good dogfighting chapter for this story. At first, I thought I was doing great, airbrake maneuvers and all with Leon's part.

And then I realized something.

YOU CAN'T DO A FREAKIN' AIRBRAKE MANEUVER IN SPACE!!! THERE'S NO GRAVITY!!!

...Which led to a major redesign session after a long string of curses.

At any rate, I don't have much to say about this chapter other than that. I'll let the ending segment speak for itself on what the final chapter will be like.


	31. Chapter 16: The Final Battle, Part 1: Be

Chapter 16: The Final Battle, Part 1: Beginning of the End

March 23, 2362

Outer Space

1257 hours

"Solar?!" Fox exclaimed. "You're going to siphon Solar?!"

"You Lylatians must be quite deaf," Iradanus chuckled sadistically. "You heard me the first time."

"That's impossible!" Slippy interjected. "Siphoning all that energy would overload all electrical components within those things!"

"You really think so?" Oikonny retorted. "These Gargantuans are capable of more than you can imagine, fools! Lord Iradanus, let's make this quick and begin the siphoning process!"

"For once, ape," said Iradanus, "you're making sense. Let's end this. Lovell, switch to fleet communications channel and charge engines to full. All Gargantuans follow suit-"

The rest of it was reduced to static as the humans withdrew from open channel. A few seconds later, the rear-facing engines of the Gargantuans roared to life as the state-sized engines began charging power. At the same time, the twin stalks on the ships began charging with energy.

"Oh, no you don't!" Fox gritted his teeth. "I don't care what you say about those things! You're going down, Iradanus- once and for all!"

"Fox, calm down," Adder swerved his Bloody Maw in front of the vulpine's Arwing III to block him off. "You can't go rushing into these kinds of things without a clue of what you're doing. Did you see what just happened a few minutes ago? Our ships unloaded their heavy guns at that thing, and they didn't even damage a defense turret! If capital ships and battleships couldn't do a thing, what makes you think we can? We've lost this battle already, and there's no use in wasting lives for this!"

"So what else are we going to do?" the kitsune leader shot back. "Sit around and watch them siphon Solar? We have to stop them! There has to be a way!"

"Hm, I think the boy's gettin' somewhere," Panther gave a short grunt of approval. "Even those giant ships must have a weak point. What we need to do now is find it."

The serpent remained silent for a few moments before asking, "Supreme general…we're planning to commence an attack on the _Leviathan_. Do we have authorization?"

"What?!" Cris yelled. "Sir, you're asking for authorization to attack them?!"

"Pipe down, and shut up, Cris," Brutus growled. "Even tacticians like Ace have to seek advice from their superiors."

"Brutus is right," Adder confirmed. "Well, supreme general…what are your orders?"

"Hell," Pepper started, "I've been in service for longer than most of the latest generation has lived for. I've fought during the Age of Darkness. I've fought during the Lylat Wars. I've fought through the Aparoid Invasion and the Anglar War as well, but not a single time have I ever seen the Lylat System in such a perilous time as this. This is the defining moment of a soldier! Many of us, I can already tell, are scared. And that's alright! But…even during a moment or two of fear…what do you do? Do you run to save yourself? Do you stay behind in fear for your life? Or do you fight like a true soldier- one who would sacrifice himself for a cause greater than his or her own life? That decision is different for many soldiers.

"But, as the supreme general of the Confederation of the United Planets of the Lylat System, I won't back down from this fight! I've never done it before, and I won't start now! These humans have desecrated the planets we call home- sucking the planetary energy out of them like corporeal vampires! 'Way too far' just doesn't seem to cut it at the moment! Adder, I don't know about you, but I'm going to fight these humans to my dying breath! Soldiers of the Confederation- what are your choices?!"

A glorious battle cry erupted over the radio, causing Fox to lower the volume for a bit before it died down. Everyone was clearly ready to fight, even though they were up against insurmountable odds. He looked at Adder's Bloody Maw, as did every one of the mercenaries, all waiting for the serpent's answer.

"Everyone," the veteran spoke, "we're up against the greatest threat that the Lylat System has ever seen. Though these giants must have a weakness of some sort, it isn't apparent in any way right now. But…everyone…I have already made my decision." Everyone now looked at the serpent's fighter as if they knew what he was going to say. Fox was already preparing to turn tail. "All teams…BREAK FORMATION AND ATTACK AT WILL!!!"

The commandos-for-hire gave a loud cheer from Adder's decision as Peppy ordered, "Well, the mercs are in it, the supreme general's in it…this is it, soldiers! For the sake of the Lylat System, break and attack!"

Fox punched his engines, causing the blood to rush from his head from the ensuing burst of speed. He reached the side of the Gargantuan _Leviathan_ in several seconds and generated a flurry of sparks as he opened fire with the Arwing III's autocannons. His companions and the ULS fleet along with the Spades joined the fray, adding their own weapons to the mix. Soon, not only were explosions going off on the outside of the _Leviathan_, but the five other Gargantuans as well. Unfortunately, as spectacular as the lightshows were, that's all that they were- spectacular. Nothing they seemed to throw at the Gargantuans seemed to work. Not even the countless defense turrets, missile launchers, and flak guns on the outside of the ships seemed to be affected.

"Finding a weak point is going to take much longer than I thought," Fox bit his lip. "Krystal, can you search for one?"

"I can only do that with things that actually _have_ minds or some kind of intelligence, Fox," the vixen responded. "This doesn't have any!"

"But can't you try and locate Iradanus' or Oikonny's minds and find out?"

"I already tried- it didn't work! There's something that's interfering with my mental projection!"

Fox bit harder on his lip, then asked, "Ace, can't you just use that antimatter cannon, or whatever it is, to blow them up?"

"Alright," the albino pilot replied sarcastically, "if you also wanted to take out everything within anything the range the size of, oh I don't know… seven Titanias, I'll just go on ahead! Are you flippin' insane?! Do you have any idea how big the explosion would be?! If I even _wanted_ to use it, anyone who'd get in range to fire it would be killed!"

"Couldn't you just launch the cannon in a contained object into range and remotely fire it?" Cris inquired as she harmlessly pummeled the Gargantuan. "Aren't you a genius at robotics or something?"

The wunderkind stayed silent for a moment before responding, "While that is a good idea, the antimatter cannon requires an atmosphere to work…Then again, I could always create a self-containment unit for that…So that might actually work!"

"Yeah!" Slippy cheered over the radio. "The only thing we'd have to worry about is that if would get blown up before it got in range! There aren't any fighters to do that, and all those defensive emplacements aren't operational! We can do it!"

Far ahead on the _Leviathan_'s side, a glint of light appeared, and dark shapes flew out seconds after. The humans had just launched their fighters into the fray, and by the looks of things, there were far more fighters than the ULS had at the moment.

"Guys, we got company!" Falco announced over the radio. "And by the looks of things, a lot of 'em!"

"Slippy," Fox closed his eyes and sighed, "we're good friends and all, but did you really have to jinx it?"

"Hey," Aloysius spoke, "I'm just glad I'm not the only one who does it!"

"So much for remotely firing it!" Ace grumbled. "What the hell are we gonna do now?"

"There are way too many fighters out there," Wolf exhaled deeply. "We can't get close to them before they start taking us down!"

"You wanna bet?" asked Krystal smugly. Energy was already building up in a shimmer on her Cloudskater's sonic pulse emitter.

"Oh, jeez!" Falco exclaimed. "Not again!"

Fox flattened his ears against his head just as his wife fired the weapon. Blue and orange explosions were generated as the wave of sound slammed against them, breaking the glass of their windscreens and causing them to decompress.

Keeping on hand on the yoke, the orange kitsune repeatedly smacked his palm against his ear to try and stop the ringing inside it. After it cleared, he looked to see that a good chunk of the enemy fighter squadrons were gone, but his sigh of relief was interrupted with a loud roar as the Gargantuan, surprisingly intact, in front of his starfighter began moving forwards at an unbelievable speed. In mere seconds, the country-sized battleship was cleared of his field of vision and heading for Solar.

"Crap!" Tallon cursed. "That thing is freakin' fast! We gotta catch up to it before it reaches Solar!"

"I apologize, Lylatians," Iradanus' voice returned, "but it's far too late now. The time for this system to fall has come…but before I get too carried away, I'll give you one more chance- one more chance to all save yourselves. Just surrender to us, and we'll promise to let you live."

"Bah!" Supreme General Pepper growled. "Do you honestly think that we'll give in to your demands? No matter what, we'll protect our homes until our dying breath!"

"I honestly can't tell you how many times I've heard that remark, Pepper. Though I admire your persistence, honor, and dedication to the protection of your system…it must end here. Oikonny, let's get this over with."

"Yes, indeed," Oikonny was breathing erratically in anticipation. "Time to turn the lights out, soldiers! Begin the siphoning process!"

* * *

The elongated command deck of the _Leviathan_ was the size of a small town, simply put. Computers regulating life-support systems, hangar status, security systems, siphon equipment, and movement systems made up two entire floors. The three floors above contained equipment that regulated defense systems, forward-facing engines, gravity negation systems, kinetic-planetary energy readings, and reactor safety systems were also full, but those manning them were awaiting orders since there was not enough energy to power all systems aboard the Gargantuan. Meanwhile, officers in active stations were in their swivel chairs, clacking away at the complex series of controls in front of them. The complicated equipment didn't stop there- the Gargantuans were of such epic proportions that a network of high-speed elevators and transit platforms lined much of the interior of the ship, zipping along blue laser rails. In the midst of it all, Iradanus and Oikonny were standing side-by-side at the top floor near the massive windscreen, which was now engulfed in the massive, explosive expanse of Solar. The only thing that kept them from having retinal damage or making them squint their eyes was a complex light shield that was integrated into the light screen.

"Well, it's going to be a little sad seeing good 'ol Lylat go bye-bye," Oikonny let out a small sigh. "It's not that I'm against you, Lord Iradanus, it's just…just…"

"Easily understandable, Andrew," Iradanus nodded. "Here you are, second in command of the most powerful…actually, second-most powerful military in the universe. You have been made immortal and have been endowed with great power. But it hasn't come without some losses. We humans feel the same, you know. There has been much loss to us as well, particularly Earth."

"You mean your kind's original homeworld, correct, my Lord?" Oikonny inquired, raising an eyebrow over his now pupil-devoid eyes. "And what do you mean 'second-most powerful'?"

"Yes, Earth was our original home planet," Iradanus answered. "As for being the second-most powerful military in the universe…well…You see, we have some otherworldly friends out there. That's all I can say for now. Right now, let's just focus on what's in front of us, shall we?" He yelled to an officer on the deck below. "Beckett! Are we in range?"

"All Gargantuans are now in range, my Lord," the officer responded. "Siphoning systems on standby. We're awaiting orders, my Lord."

"Good," Oikonny nodded. "I believe an arousing speech is necessary?"

"Why not?" Iradanus shrugged, then tapped into a communications console and linked it to fleetwide network. "Fellow humans, the time has come to take down another alien race. From the Tandians of the Serrerius System, to the Qerasa of the Elraskani System- from the Argothans of Torion, to the Zogith of the Vry…Vir…Veyri…Well, you get the point. We have dominated our surrounding neighbors- eradicating some, scattering or enslaving others. Now, for the first time ever, we shall conquer an extraterrestrial race outside of our Milky Way Galaxy! Now is the time to expand our domain to more than just our colony Epsilon! Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta (Note to the readers: that's actually the order of the Greek alphabet until Epsilon. There's nothing regarding our 'c' or why their 'g' goes before 'd'.) aren't going to wait on us forever!

"So let's hurry up and prove that humans are the ultimate beings! Let's take down these lesser beings! Begin the siphoning process!"

Iradanus was actually surprised by the amount of applause he generated- so much, in fact, that he could barely hear the loud hiss of the _Leviathan_'s impact against Solar. _Well, Lylatians, you've played your cards well, but it's time for you to read 'em and weep…_

* * *

"Warning- the Gargantuans have impacted against Solar!" ROB announced over the comm channel.

"Dangit!" Fox cursed as he downed another Harbinger. "We can't do anything with these fighters swarming around us! We have to get around them!"

The vulpine released the trigger of the laser autocannons, allowing them to cool down as he used his homing DLB cannon to take down a Seraph that just materialized before kicking in the boost. Blood rushed to his head as the ship boosted forward, and he brought the ship into a tight barrel roll to prevent getting damaged by other ships he hit. However, the ship's energy level was rapidly dropping, and he exited out of his barrel roll and eased off the throttle. Unfortunately, fighters engulfed his ship once again just after he stopped boosting, extracting a curse from him.

"Any more bright ideas, pup?" Wolf growled. "That's not working! Oh, for the love of- cover your ears!"

Fox flattened his ears against his head once again as his hearing was reduce to nothing more than a dull ringing. The explosions occurring outside his canopy were dull percussions, and he gritted his teeth as the sound returned with a _whoosh_ not unlike a breaking wave.

"For crying out loud!" Ace whined. "I really love that weapon, but if you're gonna use it, please just tell us beforehand!"

"Well, _sorry_!" Krystal apologized sarcastically. "But check it out! They're retreating!"

Fox looked around to see the Harbingers crowd around the Seraph fighters, which jumped into slipstream moments later. Small disruptions of space occurred around Solar a few seconds later.

"Wait…," Adder spoke. "They've returned to their ships?"

"Great!" Ace cheered. "Alright, guys, I'm gonna head back to the _Dreadnought_ and wire up the antimatter cannon for-"

"I'm afraid it's too late, Lylatians," Iradanus spoke again. "You're window of opportunity has just closed…permanently. It is time to initiate the siphon."

"What?!" Fox cried. "No!"

From Fox's perspective, the Gargantuans appeared to be pencil point-sized dots on the fiery orb of Solar, even though they were country-sized warships. However, something was happening even as the vulpine leader brought up a hand to shield the glare from the system's star. He widened his eyes in realization that Solar was _shrinking_. The star pulsated in an effort to withstand the siphon, but to no avail as it continually shrunk and shrunk. All the while, Solar's surface- once boiling hot- was now starting to change into a dark shade of red. Solar flares and prominences leapt and looped from the star in an effort to retain as much energy as possible. The Lylat System's source of warmth, light, and life was fading now, turning into a minuscule sphere that looked as though Fox could reach out and pinch easily. As the Gargantuans continued to drain the ever-shrinking star, it became noticeable that beams of energy were draining it much like the siphoning device inside the facilities. Even now, Fox's field of vision was being shrouded as the system's star darkened even more. As the star turned into a deathly black shade of color, the Gargantuans started to glow with energy. This glow intensified right after the last of the system's sun simply disappeared. The Gargantuans' beams of energy vanished, as did their glow, leaving the universe to appear nothing more than glinting stars in the distance and the lights on the Arwing III's control consoles and readings. This was true darkness. Suddenly, small dots of light appeared, and Fox realized they were the seven Gargantuans' engines…but…they were backing up for a strange reason…

"This is the beginning of the end, Lylatians," Iradanus spoke, almost lamented. "Gargantuans, assume Apocalypse formation."

"Oh, Jesus!" Xamuros exclaimed. "They're going to fire! Back away from them! I said back away!"

Dazed and disoriented by the lack of a point of reference, Fox did his best to turn his ship around and punched the throttle to the max. Then the Gargantuans fired.

The resulting blasts of energies were so bright, it caused Fox to become momentarily blind, his vision becoming like a double-vision picture. He blinked several times to readjust his eyes to the intense light and looked around him. He could see the _Dreadnought_, all three teams, and the rest of the ULS fleet unharmed. With a quick turn of his head, he also noted that the planets he could see were also unaffected. So what the hell were the Gargantuans firing at?

Fox turned his ship around to see that the Gargantuans beams were so bright that they actually lit up the entire system. The gigantic ships were firing their beams, but at no planet, warship, or anything worth destroying. They were firing their beams where Solar's core once was. The ships were arranged in a circular fashion with equal space in between, and they were firing their beams at exactly the same point.

"What in the name of Lylat are they doing?!" Halcyon asked incredulously. "I want a status report on what is going on over there NOW!"

"Detecting high levels of unidentifiable energy in the Gargantuan beams," ROB clamored. "Scanning beams…processing data…Working…Working…Scan complete- each beam contains energy equal to that of Solar."

"What?!" Fox exclaimed. "Beams of that power could destroy entire planets!"

"Then why would they fire where Solar used to be?" Peppy asked. "It doesn't make any sense!"

"Then allow me to clear it up for you," Iradanus began to explain. "If you haven't already noticed, we've siphoned most of your system's planetary energy, as well as the entire star you knew as Solar. As it has already been stated, these beams with Solar's energy alone can obliterate entire planets…But that's not what I'm wasting my time talking to you lesser beings for, isn't it? By firing into the center- the heart- of the Lylat System, we are now in the perfect position to take out the entire quadrant if necessary! And you'll see what I mean right now!"

"Whoa!" Slippy cried. "The Gargantuans are now giving off some kind of energy field!"

"Whadda ya mean?" Wolf asked. "What's it doing?"

"Hold on…scans indicate that the field is somehow negating all effects of gravity."

"But we're in space!" Marcus interjected. "There's no gravity to negate! What do they hope to gain by wasting energy?"

"Hmph, you'll see…," Iradanus huffed. "Once you we add your planet's energy into the beam, all will become clear."

Fox narrowed his eyes, trying to comprehend what the dictator was saying, and then looked at the colossal ships. The protrusions near the twin stalks of each Gargantuan began charging with multi-colored energy, forming spheres of light on each tip. The protrusions then fired the energy directly into the beams, causing the bluish-white energy to mingle with myriad other colors.

The change was almost instantaneous. The conversion point for the beams was now starting to grow into a large, blue colored sphere. It kept growing in size, and the deep shade of blue started becoming lighter in color, though still retaining its blue hue.

"What are they…," Xamuros paused, then exclaimed. "They're making an artificial star?!"

"You're joking," Adder spoke flatly. "They're using all that energy to make a star. Wow, and I thought Oikonny was the stupid one."

"Call me what you want, snake," Oikonny growled. "I can assure you that we'll try and make this quick. Magnify the energy output!"

The Gargantuans' beams now became much larger and vibrant. As a result, the new star was rapidly becoming unstable, growing to a supermassive size in several seconds and turning a dark, blood-red color.

"Are they…TRYING TO STIMULATE A SUPERNOVA?!" Ace screamed.

Fox stared wide-eyed at the star, which was still growing larger and larger. "Holy crap," he whispered, then asked, "Uh, Supreme General, hasn't the Lylat System already prepared for a supernova explosion?"

"Yes," Pepper answered. "Quite a long time ago, too. Heh, we should be totally safe on this one."

"Alright," Adder sighed. "But just in case, drain all energy from your engines and weapon systems and redirect it to your shielding."

Fox pressed a few buttons and flipped a few switches on the console to his left. The readings on the right console charts showed the weapons and engine energy level to be zero percent, while shielding was now a whopping three-hundred percent. _I'd like to see something that could get past that!_ he smiled no himself.

Nevertheless, the orange kitsune bent his head as far down as he could in his safety harness and gripped the handles attached to them with his hands in a brace position. Far out ahead, the artificial star had grown to such a size that it had completely enveloped the Gargantuans themselves. The extremely unstable celestial object was beginning to bulge and compress in several different places. Prominences and solar flares leapt and looped out as a last ditch effort to reduce the pressure on the fireball. So much for that.

With the ensuing explosion, Fox would have thought that someone set off a dozen flashbang grenade right in front of him, though that was an impossibility. The oversized star literally tore itself apart with its dying breath. A gaseous nebula radiated from the supernova, though Fox wasn't able to see it with his eyes closed tight. His Arwing III buckled wildly for several seconds as it spun around from the force of the explosion.

When the bombardment ended, the vulpine leader opened his eyes and shook his head wildly to clear the ringing out of his ears. Like Supreme General Pepper said, the entire fleet had withstood the blast, as well as the rest of the Lylat System. Even Titania, with its relatively close proximity, was left unscathed. The only exception was the remainder of Macbeth, whose hollow shell was vaporized by the heat. He gazed at the energy readings on the right. The shields had been reduced to a mere ten percent from the supernova, which wasn't surprising at all. Underneath the percentage, the words "Initiating automatic energy recharge_" were blinking steadily. With a few button-presses, the energy readings split up between the shielding, engines, and weapon systems once more.

Fox turned his ship around and asked, "Is everyone alright?"

"Yup," Slippy answered back. "All fighters are accounted for."

"And thank goodness for that," Cris sighed, causing the comm to hiss slightly. "Well, I can see the Gargantuans are still around…Wait, why are they still firing?"

The orange-furred kitsune widened his eyes at the sight. The Gargantuans were, indeed, still firing, this time at the exposed core of the exploded star- a white dwarf. By squinting his eyes, he could tell that the Gargantuans weren't firing- they were now siphoning energy from the planet-sized sphere, which was rapidly cooling into a darker shade of color.

"What the-," Adder stopped himself. "What are they trying to do _now_? Ace, do you have any idea?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" the albino retorted. "Jeez, I gotta have some time to analyze what's happening, y'know!"

"Well, can't you think any faster?" Aloysius complained. "Those humans are DEFINITELY up to something, and we gotta find out what!"

"Don't you have ears, ya tin can?" Ace growled. "I need time to think! Now hold on! …Alright, Ace…let's review those star life cycles…nebula, protostar, star, supergiant, supernova, white dwarf, black dwarf… Holy crap…"

"What is it, Ace?" Krystal asked, trying to stimulate a response. "What's going on?"

The pit viper breathed deeply and replied in a hoarse voice, "They…they're tryin' to create a black hole…"

Fox merely stared at Ace's fighter, then back at the dark sphere that was being siphoned as they spoke and whispered, "Oh, dang."

A small snicker was audible over the radio, and it soon grew into a full-blown, sinister laugh. Iradanus chuckled, "So you've finally realized it after all this time! Hah, you've taken much longer to realize your doom than most other species we've done this to in the past!" He stopped chuckling and resumed speaking with a stern tone. "Well, that's right- we're trying to create a black hole here. Sure, it'll take some time for us to alter this black dwarf and cause the helium core to continue down the periodic table of elements all the way to iron…but I assure you, it'll be worth the wait to see all of this. You Lylatians are lucky- the G-diffusers on your ships should be able to negate the pull of gravity…temporarily, at least. While your vessels must consume fuel to maintain flight and gravity diffusion, the Gargantuans have enough planetary energy to do that for months, if needed. Fortunately, and for us, I mean, it won't take nearly that long for all of you and your planets to be sucked into it.

"But before we begin the countdown to your extinction…I'll offer you all another chance- one last chance to just surrender to our race. If you do so, we'll halt this war, and you'll just end up as our eternal slaves as we continue our universal conquest. It's better than death, you know. So…what'll it be?"

There was silence for a long time as all eyes fell to the Cornerian flagship, in which was Supreme General Pepper. The bloodhound replied, "I have four words to say to you, Iradanus."

"Let me guess- 'We Lylatians shall surrender.'."

"Nope- _rot…in a ditch_, Iradanus!"

"…So be it. Resume firing at the black dwarf. Well, Lylatians, this is our last transmission to you while you're all still alive." Suddenly, a glint of light erupted from the midsection of the _Leviathan_ as a bright, orange beam of energy instantaneously impacted against an Aquasian carrier. The energy shielding around it shattered and the beam pummeled, or rather drilled, all the way through the prow to the stern. Decompression caused the ship to crumple before exploding as the beam ceased to fire. "Oh, and just to let you know, that was just a warning shot. Come any closer, and we'll be forced to kill you all. Good-bye."

With that, Iradanus withdrew from open channel. Fox was shaking all over now. _So…this is it,_ he thought. _This is how it all ends- getting sucked into nothingness by a black hole…_He leaned back in his seat, releasing his grip on the yoke and letting out a deep sigh.

"Well," he lamented, "I guess this is it. I guess this is how we all die."

"Aw, quit being so negative!" Slippy exclaimed. "Ace, do great minds think alike?"

"Hell, yes they do," the albino responded happily. "So, we both know what to do?"

"Oh, yeah."

"What the hell are you two talking about?!" Falco half-shouted. "If you've got a plan, then spit it out!"

"That we do, Falco," Slippy responded. "That we do. Everyone, back on the _Dreadnought_. Get to the command deck briefing room. And generals? Field Master Xamuros? I'd like for you to establish communications with the ship asap."

Fox took ahold of the yoke again and turned for the mothership. _Well, we might as well give it a shot…_

* * *

"Good, you're all here," Slippy greeted the teams as they entered the command deck. "Now sit down. There's a lot to go over. Ace, you mind comin' up with me?"

"Sure thing, Slips," the albino nodded as he joined his friend. After everyone sat down, the holoprojector lifted from the floor and glowed to life, displaying four rectangular screens in the air around the room. Generals Pepper, Hare, and Halcyon, as well as Xamuros had established communications.

"You mentioned a plan?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah," Slippy began. "Now I'd like to begin by stating the obvious. The humans are gonna generate a black hole that'll suck us all up into oblivion with ships the size of countries. Also, these Gargantuans are made of an unknown material that can withstand unbelievable amounts of punishment and also gives off some kind of shield that prevents Krystal from accessing any consciences inside them. Additionally, while they can prevent being sucked up into the black hole, we, however, can't after our fuel cells die out. Attacking them head on would be completely suicidal, since those defense systems are now active, which also prevents us from remotely launching and firing Ace's antimatter cannon. So…if we can't get them on the outside…Well, come on, guys, you're smart enough to figure this out!"

"We can take them out on the inside, right?" Tallon asked. "Y'know, that's also suicidal, considering a gigantic army is inside each one, ready to defend them…"

"Hold on, Tallon," Ace stopped him. "I figure it's possible." He went up to the holoprojector and placed his hand on a small panel, causing a model of the Gargantuan to pop up- one identical to the one Oxan showed them. "Now, Slips and I figure that in order to control a black hole and prevent it from becoming unstable, the Gargantuans must drain energy from it, which they're already doing, and that a black hole requires a significant amount of energy drainage to retain stability, which is why we can assume that all Gargantuans are needed to drain energy from it. Therefore, each Gargantuan's gravity negation system is under a high amount of stress when doing so, since it has to resist the black hole's gravitational pull…and Slips already found out that the system also uses the same energy supply as the main cannon!"

"So…," Panther rolled his index and middle finger towards the wunderkind, "what's your point?"

"Ack, you're an idiot!" Ace smacked his forehead. "That means that while the Gargantuans are firing, each one's gravity negation system has more strain on it! That means it can only resist gravity to a certain extent now. If we manage to cause the black hole to loose stability by taking down a single Gargantuan, it would cause the black hole to overpower the other ships' G-negation systems and cause them to overload and get sucked into the black hole!"

"That might just work!" Halcyon cracked a rare smile. "That really might just work!"

"Only problem is," Xamuros tilted his head sideways, "that means we're going to have to infiltrate one of those things and blow 'em up…which I doubt's possible. And one thing's been bothering me…how do you know that the G-negation system and main cannon use the same energy source?"

Everyone's eyes fell to Ace and took out their weapons. He screamed, "Whoa! Jeez, guys, it's me! Ace Patrickson Hawkins, I.D. number three-six-six-two-eight-one!"

"That's him alright," Adder lowered his shotgun. "Still, we're all wondering how you two found this out."

"Simple," Slippy grinned. "While Iradanus was broadcasting over open channel, ROB was able to perform a complete scan of the _Leviathan_. Iradanus' over-confidence is our boon."

"So does this mean you've found a way to take down the Gargantuans?" General Hare asked. "Even on the inside, it's going to be extremely difficult to take even one of those things down."

"Sure does," the frog pressed his palm to the holoprojector, causing the rotating image of the Gargantuan to enlarge and reveal the schematics. "Since the G-negation system alone isn't powerful enough to withstand the pull of a black hole, each Gargantuan requires forward-facing engines." The ten engines mentioned were highlighted now.

"So all we have to do is destroy or deactivate the engines, and the entire thing goes down!" Leon nodded. "Sounds good to me."

"But you're forgetting that the Gargantuans are the size of countries," Ace stopped him. "The hangar is located right here," He pointed just after the middle of the ship. "Unless if you feel like traveling the length of a dozen large states, I don't think that's such a hot idea. Sure, there are transit systems and elevators, but when all these soldiers are firing at you along the way…yeah. But there's an easier way of doing so. I'll ask you this: If the black hole's pulling from the front and the engines are trying to force the ship backwards, where on the Gargantuan is going under the most physical stress?"

"The midsection!" Xamuros blurted out. "And that's in direct proximity of the main hangar!"

"Exactly," Slippy bobbed his head in confirmation. Ace moved out of the way while the amphibian caused the other sections of the ship to disappear, creating a hollow cut-out of the midsection, which was supported by several rows criss-crossing beams around an inner hull, "As you can see here, the ship is supported by rows of proctium beams between the outer and inner hull areas. These beams are relatively weak enough to be displaced with force equal to that of a nova bomb. All we have to do here is get onboard and set up timed nova bombs at the places inside the inner hull where the beams intersect outside. Then, hopefully after everyone's at a safe distance away, the bombs will detonate, causing the inner hull to collapse, weakening the beams' support. With additional strain from the forward-facing engines and the black hole's gravitational pull, the whole battleship'll be torn asunder! And after that, the black hole will loose stability without the energy of an additional Gargantuan, sucking the rest of them up before fading from existence! And we'll be out of range by the time that happens, so we'll be alive and kicking!"

"Dangit, Slippy!" Fox laughed. "What the heck would we do without you?"

"Hmph," Falco huffed. "And I thought you hated him just several minutes ago."

"What was that?"

"Ah, nutin', man."

"In that case," the canine general nodded, "I'm going to order the fleet to get as far out of harm's way as possible while you enact your plan. I must advise that you choose the _Leviathan_ to destroy, since it may also present the chance to capture or kill Iradanus or Oikonny, if not both."

"Understood, supreme general," Adder saluted. "The _Leviathan_ it is."

"In that case," Xamuros spun his head around, "I will be happy to assist along with my best Spades and mechs- Division Z."

"Alright then, field master," Wolf stood up. "Well guys, let's pay these humans back!"

Pepper sighed, "You know, commandos…it would be very disappointing to loose all of you for this noble cause. Please…do your best to complete the task and get out alive. The life of every confederate of the United Lylat System is at stake, so we all wish you the best of luck! Pepper, over and out!"

"Yes, friends…," Peppy looked with sorrowful eyes at everyone else, "just…do your best…It would be a great pain to us all if even one of you is lost…So…good luck. Hare…over and out…"

"Meet you inside the _Leviathan_, commandos," Xamuros saluted them. "I'll be gathering my men and awaiting orders."

Halcyon remained silent for several seconds before speaking flatly, "…Good luck…" With that, the holoprojector shut itself off and the black screens covering the many windows around the command deck lifted.

"Alright, everyone," Fox stood up, "This battle is going to determine the fate of not only the Lylat System, but the survival of the entire Lylatian race! Everyone to the armory! Get your best weapons and armor, and hold nothing back! Let's go, people! We've got a debt to repay to those humans!"

* * *

"Did you get all of that, my Lord?" the officer manning the communications console asked.

"Yes," the dictator answered. "You did well, officer. Increased rations for the remainder of your service."

"Yes, my Lord…Thank you, my lord…"

Oikonny ran up to Iradanus asking, "What is it, Lord Iradanus? What just happened?"

"The Lylatians have figured out how to take us down," he frowned. "This doesn't bode well at all…Peters! Raise the alarm! Put all troops on high alert!"

"Yes, my Lord!" came a response from an officer on the floor above. A series of shrill klaxons rang out shortly after.

"And Oikonny…"

"Yes, Lord Iradanus?"

"I want you to see to it personally that those mercenaries never set up those nova bombs."

"B-but, my Lord! I may be immortal now, but I can't look after all of them at once!"

"Which is why I enlisted a friend to assist you," Iradanus beckoned to the side of him. "Light. You may come forth."

Suddenly, particles of light formed in various directions around the two. They danced around for a moment before collecting about ten feet away from them. As the light particles piled on top of one another, a humanoid shape emerged. It was practically the size and shape of a human…that had taken three times the normal dose of muscle-enhancement drugs, minus anything that looked like a head. The creature was entirely composed of light, each part of its being sparkling in various colors of the visible spectrum much like an aurora, though usually retaining a whitish color. With each step it took towards the two, its feet left behind glowing footprints of energy that sparkled for several moments before fading. It reached the two, and kneeled.

"_My lord..._," it whispered with a slight echo.

"Rise," Iradanus ordered. "Oikonny, may I introduce you to the Epitome of Light? This specific entity is extremely hard to create…and for a good reason. I see you will get acquainted quite nicely."

The white simian merely nodded in understanding before he headed for a transit platform with the Epitome of Light.

"Oikonny…," Iradanus called.

"Yes, my Lord?" the ape looked back at him.

"…Do not fail me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Lord Iradanus…"

* * *

* * *

[Author's Notes- Apologies for the long wait between this upload and the last. I blame lack of motivation. It hits me sometimes.

Anyways, this is the final chapter of Contact. It's a damn long one, I'll tell you that. *sigh* This specific part brings back memories... Namely how NSider fell a few days after I posted it. Fun times.

It was also after this that I went on hiatus for a VERY long time. Three months I think. That was partly due to, "How the hell am I going to live up to the how much I hyped up this final chapter?". Mostly, it was due to, "#$!, I just lost all my readers when NSider fell!"

But now it's here, and ripe for your enjoyment. Read and review, people. I'd like to have more than six (as of 10/4/09) reviews someday! Preferably with constructive criticism!]


	32. Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought's_ armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

"Sir, Ace and I have been with you for a LONG time," Brutus crossed his arms. "You're not exactly the easiest person to kill. Like Cris said, you're not gonna die here."

"Hm," Adder closed his eyes. "So everyone's so sure of me…"

"I don't know about you guys," Ace called to everyone else, "but we've got to…oh, I don't know…GET MOVING BEFORE THE BLACK HOLE IS CREATED AND WE GET SUCKED UP BEFORE WE REACH THE _LEVIATHAN_!"

"Ace's right," Fox nodded. "Let's grab some nova bombs and get to the hangar."

"Well, of course I'm right! Have I ever been wrong about anything? Now, Leon, you're gonna have to choose a different fighter. We need speed for this mission. Same goes for you, Tallon."

After everyone loaded a nova bomb pack onto their back, the three teams headed for the nearby hangar, each getting into their fighters. Leon and Tallon, however, chose the Wolfen and Arwing respectively, as their own fighters were to slow to be used effectively in the given circumstances. Fox skipped the rungs on his ladder up to his new Arwing III, pushing it out of the way as he entered the cockpit and closed the canopy over him.

The vulpine leader had just established radio communications when Slippy spoke, "Alright, we're in the clear. Preparing for space launch now. Field Master Xamuros, what's your status?"

"The ULS fleet is out of range of the Gargantuans' targeting systems and Division-Z is go," the Spade announced. "As promised, my best Spades and mechs are going to join the battle. Ready when you are."

"Understood, sir. Well, guys…you're good to go. Opening hangar doors."

As the hangar's massive doors opened to reveal the expanse of space laid in front of them before a low-powered force field, Adder began, "Look…everyone…this is our biggest mission yet. The whole fate of the Lylat System rests on our shoulders. Awaiting us is a country-sized battleship- fully operational with a gigantic army inside to stop us. And we have to set up nova bombs on the inside to blow it all up, capture or kill Iradanus and/or Oikonny whom are probably heavily guarded…and then get out of the place before we all get caught in the ensuing explosion and loss of stability of the black hole.

"This mission is going to be damn tough, and there's a chance that…not all of us are gonna make it out alive. If that's…the case…then I want everyone to know it's been the golden age of my life working with you all. Thank you."

"Hear, hear," Fox nodded in agreement as everyone repeated after him.

"Everyone, let's just do our best to complete the job and live…Now, let's kick these humans' asses! For the Lylat System!"

Cheers and repeating calls broke out as the commandos-for-hire fired up their spacecrafts' engines, causing a wave of heat to be formed in the hangar. Once finished, the starships sped from the _Dreadnought_ and for the _Leviathan_. Fox eased off on the throttle as a dozen transport dropships in addition to Xamuros and at least fifty of his Spades in Longsword form arrived. Once everyone was in formation, Ace came in over the radio.

"Alright, everyone, here's how it goes," the albino pilot ace began. "First off, we're gonna need to get into the _Leviathan_ pretty darn quick, or we're gonna get blasted to bits by the defense system. For that, we need to drain all energy from our weapons and input them into our shields and engines, forty percent for shields and sixty percent for engines. Bloody Maw fighters should go into interceptor mode, then switch to omega configuration once we get in range of the targeting systems on that Gargantuan. Once the hangar is visible, we need to revert the energy input to regular and start firing into it while barrel rolling in order to soften up the defenses while at the same time preventing from taking too much damage. If all goes well, we came make it inside the hangar without taking that many hits.

"Once inside, we'll secure the hangar through some down and dirty fighting, using fighters, equipment, or whatever for cover. When that's taken care of, we'll proceed to set up the nova bombs at the location where the beams intersect within the inner hull. Since we can't exactly remote detonate them without being in range of the danger zone afterwards, we're gonna have to time them."

"What?!" Falco exclaimed. "You mean to tell us that we not only have to find Iradanus and Oikonny afterwards, but we're gonna have to do it _timed_?!"

"Would you rather the person getting close enough to send the transmission signal get blown up?" Ace retorted. "Exactly. Thirty minutes should be plenty of time to either kill or capture the two, if all goes according to plan."

"Which it probably won't," Xamuros interjected. "This is Iradanus we're dealing with."

"I'm quite aware of that, which is why I'm choosing thirty minutes instead of fifteen. Now, if I may continue…After we either complete or fail that secondary, we're gonna have to get the hell out of the ship before it all goes to blazes. We'll head out from the hangar same way we got in- draining weapons energy reserves to forty percent for shields and sixty for engines. This time, though, we'll punch our throttles to the max to get out of the danger zone as quick as possible. Then, boom, we win. Any additions or objections?"

"Good 'nuff for me," Wolf spoke. "Anyone else?" A series of negatives called out.

"Then we're set," Fox nodded. "Well, everyone, let's do this! Head for the _Leviathan_ when ready!"

As cheers went out, the kitsune began the energy shift, displacing the energy to the proper percentages specified. He then pushed the throttle, causing him to get mashed into his seat with the ensuing surge of speed. Though barely able to turn his head, he could see that everyone else was doing the same.

Within seconds, the starships had entered range of the _Leviathan_'s targeting systems, and a stream of directed energy beams and plasma began lacing the space around them, creating a web of enemy fire. The ships and Longswords started performing their barrel rolls, greenish auras of energy sprouting from their G-diffusers and enveloping them in a protective force field. The projectiles and beams simply glanced off upon impact against this force field, protecting the energy shield systems.

Fox was trying to keep from becoming too disoriented during the barrel roll by maintaining a steady grip on the yoke. Every so often, a few of the fighters had to break off from their barrel roll to both reorient themselves and to recharge energy for the maneuver. During this, other fighters who still have enough energy would block incoming shots for them.

The next several minutes passed uneventfully. Now realizing that they couldn't damage the fighters and dropships, the defense system's operators simply gave up trying to bombard them. As they neared the hangar, however, they found it be sealed shut. In order to prevent from crashing into the ship and running out of energy by braking, everyone merely flew around in random patterns.

"What?!" Panther growled. "Ace, you didn't mention that they could've closed the hangar doors!"

"Well, this certainly is a bit of a problem," Xamuros commented. "The doors are probably of the same material as the rest of the ship, so any ideas on how to get in soon? That black dwarf is shrinking by the second! If we don't get in before the black hole is generated, it'll overpower our G-diffusers and suck us all in!"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Ace snarled. "…Let's see…the door has to open, so that means that the line separating the two doors is the weak point. Krystal, can you do a half-roll and fire your sonic pulse emitter at that crack?"

"I'm on it," the vixen acknowledged. In a second, the Cloudskater was turned sideways, and everyone covered their ears as she fired again. For the third time, Fox's hearing had been reduced to a dull ring as the wave of sonic force slammed into the crack in between the two doors.

After much inaudible cursing and everyone's hearing had returned to normal, Ace asked, "Field Master, can you get those Spades of yours to get on the sides of the door and roll it along its rails?"

"I can," Xamuros confirmed. "And I shall. Everyone, let's get on either side of that hangar door and open it up!"

With that, the Longswords boosted along the side of the _Leviathan_ before reverting back to their bipedal forms. Each of the Division Z Spades were of an ebony black with the photoreceptors and energy stripes a silver color. The cyborgs got on either side of the two doors and dug their scythe-like arms into it. They tugged with all their strength, causing the door to start creaking open.

"Alright, guys," Wolf began, "this is where the real action starts! Once the doors are open, fire into the hangar again with that sonic pulse emitter once the Spades are clear, Krystal. Let's make sure this hangar is as clear as possible before we get inside."

"Will do," the telepath complied, getting her Cloudskater into position. At last, the Spades had gotten the doors to build enough momentum to slide all the way along the rails, and they reverted back to Longsword form and boosted out of the way. The inside of the hangar, which was protected with a low-class force field like any other ship, was a spotless white, and was lined with a multitude of Seraph-class starfighters and Harbingers placed in neat rows…as well as a welcoming party of about two regiments' worth of human soldiers, four Tandem-Drones, and six Sentries. Krystal merely fired once, causing blood, gore, and all sorts of mechanical parts lay strewn across the entire room, including those of the several squadrons' worth of Seraphim and Harbingers destroyed in the attack. When the Tandem-Drones tried to reassemble themselves, she fired another shot, and the parts laid still.

"Hangar is clear," the vixen reported.

"You heard the lady," Adder called out, "now let's get in there!"

Fox punched the engines of his Arwing III, reaching the inside of the hangar in no time at all. Once he extended the stabilizers and eased off on the thrust, he activated the bottom-mounted landing thrusters, which slowed the ship's descent so that it wouldn't smash into the floor. The vulpine then threw open the canopy and vaulted over the side and onto the floor. The blood-and-gore-covered floor, that is.

"Urgh, I think I'm gonna be sick…," Krystal looked away from the remains in disgust.

"Just be glad the hangar's clear," Xamuros commented as he landed and reverted to his bipedal form, as did every other Spade. As the brick-shaped transport dropships landed, they opened their doors to reveal eighteen assault, thirteen melee, and nine heavy weapons-class mechs, all of which were also colored a dark color.

"Sweet," Aloysius huffed. "So, Ace, where exactly are the beams supporting the ship?"

"I got a blueprint of the ship here," the albino spoke as he conjured up a small holographic imaging device. He pressed a button on it, revealing the schematics of the area around the hangar. "You see, the beams are criss-crossing between the inner and outer hull in an asterisk pattern." A row of at least thirty beams were highlighted. " There are exactly thirteen beams we need to displace before this section'll become unstable enough to be torn apart. Luckily, there are thirteen mercs, meaning us, here, and that means we each have thirteen nova bombs on us. We just need to set those bombs up where they intersect, then activate the timers simultaneously so we have enough time to locate Iradanus and/or Oikonny.

"Due to the size of the ship, the section we need to destroy is easily the length of a city. Therefore, our merc group needs to split up into groups of two, each pair of us taking a different transit platform. Xamuros should go with the one left over. I'm not saying it'll just be two of us taking on an entire battleship! That's what we have the mechs and Spades for. Two or three Spades and mechs should accompany each pair. Field Master, it's your call on how to split us."

"Do I always have to do this for you people?" the golden supersoldier sighed. "Very well. Just note, Fox, I'm going to have to split your family up for the sake of fewer distractions and better pairings."

"But…okay, I'm…fine with that," the vulpine reluctantly agreed.

"Alright, then," Xamuros began. "Fox, you'll go with Adder. Krystal, you're with Ace. Tallon'll go with Leon, and Marcus will be with Panther. Falco will be paired up with Cris. Brutus and Wolf'll be together. That means I'm with Aloysius."

"Hot damn," the berserker punched his fists together before dual wielding both his railgun and laser rocket launcher. "Let's do this!"

"Indeed," nodded the supersoldier commander. "Spades, mechs- split up as you see fit." Squads were formed rather quickly. Fox and Adder now had two additional Spades, two assault-class mechs, and a melee-class mech with them.

"Lieutenant Amahk, Sergeant Haxin, at your service, sirs," the Spade known as Amahk saluted.

After everyone was done assembling, they all headed towards the back of the hangar, where a large blast door was located. It was easily high enough to accommodate an Honor Guard mech, yet long enough to allow at least an entire division's worth of troops in side-by-side.

"Everyone, take cover," Fox ordered. "When that door opens, we're bound to have tons of humans and whatever else they've brought along with them to start beating down on us."

Luckily, there was enough debris generated by the sonic pulse's destruction to accommodate everyone, including the mechs, though they had to bend sometimes to take cover. Melee-class mechs had to stand to the sides of the door, since they would be useless until passages got tighter. A Spade ran up to a panel on the side of the door and began hacking into the system. It had no difficulty in doing so, despite having scythes for arms, and in a few more seconds, he was ready to open the blast doors.

"Alright, everyone!" the supersoldier at the door called out. "Get ready! I'm gonna open the door in three…two…one…opening door!"

He pressed a final button on the panel, then dashed for his piece of cover. A loud groan filled the hangar as the door began to creak open horizontally. Fox, who had taken cover behind what used to be a Harbinger's cockpit area next to Adder, readied his assault blaster and began charging it up. The weapon's massive slider pushed all the way back after a few seconds, signaling it was fully-charged. Adder had stowed his shotgun, instead taking out his Desert Eagles.

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought's_ armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

"Sir, Ace and I have been with you for a LONG time," Brutus crossed his arms. "You're not exactly the easiest person to kill. Like Cris said, you're not gonna die here."

"Hm," Adder closed his eyes. "So everyone's so sure of me…"

"I don't know about you guys," Ace called to everyone else, "but we've got to…oh, I don't know…GET MOVING BEFORE THE BLACK HOLE IS CREATED AND WE GET SUCKED UP BEFORE WE REACH THE _LEVIATHAN_!"

"Ace's right," Fox nodded. "Let's grab some nova bombs and get to the hangar."

"Well, of course I'm right! Have I ever been wrong about anything? Now, Leon, you're gonna have to choose a different fighter. We need speed for this mission. Same goes for you, Tallon."

After everyone loaded a nova bomb pack onto their back, the three teams headed for the nearby hangar, each getting into their fighters. Leon and Tallon, however, chose the Wolfen and Arwing respectively, as their own fighters were to slow to be used effectively in the given circumstances. Fox skipped the rungs on his ladder up to his new Arwing III, pushing it out of the way as he entered the cockpit and closed the canopy over him.

The vulpine leader had just established radio communications when Slippy spoke, "Alright, we're in the clear. Preparing for space launch now. Field Master Xamuros, what's your status?"

"The ULS fleet is out of range of the Gargantuans' targeting systems and Division-Z is go," the Spade announced. "As promised, my best Spades and mechs are going to join the battle. Ready when you are."

"Understood, sir. Well, guys…you're good to go. Opening hangar doors."

As the hangar's massive doors opened to reveal the expanse of space laid in front of them before a low-powered force field, Adder began, "Look…everyone…this is our biggest mission yet. The whole fate of the Lylat System rests on our shoulders. Awaiting us is a country-sized battleship- fully operational with a gigantic army inside to stop us. And we have to set up nova bombs on the inside to blow it all up, capture or kill Iradanus and/or Oikonny whom are probably heavily guarded…and then get out of the place before we all get caught in the ensuing explosion and loss of stability of the black hole.

"This mission is going to be damn tough, and there's a chance that…not all of us are gonna make it out alive. If that's…the case…then I want everyone to know it's been the golden age of my life working with you all. Thank you."

"Hear, hear," Fox nodded in agreement as everyone repeated after him.

"Everyone, let's just do our best to complete the job and live…Now, let's kick these humans' asses! For the Lylat System!"

Cheers and repeating calls broke out as the commandos-for-hire fired up their spacecrafts' engines, causing a wave of heat to be formed in the hangar. Once finished, the starships sped from the _Dreadnought_ and for the _Leviathan_. Fox eased off on the throttle as a dozen transport dropships in addition to Xamuros and at least fifty of his Spades in Longsword form arrived. Once everyone was in formation, Ace came in over the radio.

"Alright, everyone, here's how it goes," the albino pilot ace began. "First off, we're gonna need to get into the _Leviathan_ pretty darn quick, or we're gonna get blasted to bits by the defense system. For that, we need to drain all energy from our weapons and input them into our shields and engines, forty percent for shields and sixty percent for engines. Bloody Maw fighters should go into interceptor mode, then switch to omega configuration once we get in range of the targeting systems on that Gargantuan. Once the hangar is visible, we need to revert the energy input to regular and start firing into it while barrel rolling in order to soften up the defenses while at the same time preventing from taking too much damage. If all goes well, we came make it inside the hangar without taking that many hits.

"Once inside, we'll secure the hangar through some down and dirty fighting, using fighters, equipment, or whatever for cover. When that's taken care of, we'll proceed to set up the nova bombs at the location where the beams intersect within the inner hull. Since we can't exactly remote detonate them without being in range of the danger zone afterwards, we're gonna have to time them."

"What?!" Falco exclaimed. "You mean to tell us that we not only have to find Iradanus and Oikonny afterwards, but we're gonna have to do it _timed_?!"

"Would you rather the person getting close enough to send the transmission signal get blown up?" Ace retorted. "Exactly. Thirty minutes should be plenty of time to either kill or capture the two, if all goes according to plan."

"Which it probably won't," Xamuros interjected. "This is Iradanus we're dealing with."

"I'm quite aware of that, which is why I'm choosing thirty minutes instead of fifteen. Now, if I may continue…After we either complete or fail that secondary, we're gonna have to get the hell out of the ship before it all goes to blazes. We'll head out from the hangar same way we got in- draining weapons energy reserves to forty percent for shields and sixty for engines. This time, though, we'll punch our throttles to the max to get out of the danger zone as quick as possible. Then, boom, we win. Any additions or objections?"

"Good 'nuff for me," Wolf spoke. "Anyone else?" A series of negatives called out.

"Then we're set," Fox nodded. "Well, everyone, let's do this! Head for the _Leviathan_ when ready!"

As cheers went out, the kitsune began the energy shift, displacing the energy to the proper percentages specified. He then pushed the throttle, causing him to get mashed into his seat with the ensuing surge of speed. Though barely able to turn his head, he could see that everyone else was doing the same.

Within seconds, the starships had entered range of the _Leviathan_'s targeting systems, and a stream of directed energy beams and plasma began lacing the space around them, creating a web of enemy fire. The ships and Longswords started performing their barrel rolls, greenish auras of energy sprouting from their G-diffusers and enveloping them in a protective force field. The projectiles and beams simply glanced off upon impact against this force field, protecting the energy shield systems.

Fox was trying to keep from becoming too disoriented during the barrel roll by maintaining a steady grip on the yoke. Every so often, a few of the fighters had to break off from their barrel roll to both reorient themselves and to recharge energy for the maneuver. During this, other fighters who still have enough energy would block incoming shots for them.

The next several minutes passed uneventfully. Now realizing that they couldn't damage the fighters and dropships, the defense system's operators simply gave up trying to bombard them. As they neared the hangar, however, they found it be sealed shut. In order to prevent from crashing into the ship and running out of energy by braking, everyone merely flew around in random patterns.

"What?!" Panther growled. "Ace, you didn't mention that they could've closed the hangar doors!"

"Well, this certainly is a bit of a problem," Xamuros commented. "The doors are probably of the same material as the rest of the ship, so any ideas on how to get in soon? That black dwarf is shrinking by the second! If we don't get in before the black hole is generated, it'll overpower our G-diffusers and suck us all in!"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Ace snarled. "…Let's see…the door has to open, so that means that the line separating the two doors is the weak point. Krystal, can you do a half-roll and fire your sonic pulse emitter at that crack?"

"I'm on it," the vixen acknowledged. In a second, the Cloudskater was turned sideways, and everyone covered their ears as she fired again. For the third time, Fox's hearing had been reduced to a dull ring as the wave of sonic force slammed into the crack in between the two doors.

After much inaudible cursing and everyone's hearing had returned to normal, Ace asked, "Field Master, can you get those Spades of yours to get on the sides of the door and roll it along its rails?"

"I can," Xamuros confirmed. "And I shall. Everyone, let's get on either side of that hangar door and open it up!"

With that, the Longswords boosted along the side of the _Leviathan_ before reverting back to their bipedal forms. Each of the Division Z Spades were of an ebony black with the photoreceptors and energy stripes a silver color. The cyborgs got on either side of the two doors and dug their scythe-like arms into it. They tugged with all their strength, causing the door to start creaking open.

"Alright, guys," Wolf began, "this is where the real action starts! Once the doors are open, fire into the hangar again with that sonic pulse emitter once the Spades are clear, Krystal. Let's make sure this hangar is as clear as possible before we get inside."

"Will do," the telepath complied, getting her Cloudskater into position. At last, the Spades had gotten the doors to build enough momentum to slide all the way along the rails, and they reverted back to Longsword form and boosted out of the way. The inside of the hangar, which was protected with a low-class force field like any other ship, was a spotless white, and was lined with a multitude of Seraph-class starfighters and Harbingers placed in neat rows…as well as a welcoming party of about two regiments' worth of human soldiers, four Tandem-Drones, and six Sentries. Krystal merely fired once, causing blood, gore, and all sorts of mechanical parts lay strewn across the entire room, including those of the several squadrons' worth of Seraphim and Harbingers destroyed in the attack. When the Tandem-Drones tried to reassemble themselves, she fired another shot, and the parts laid still.

"Hangar is clear," the vixen reported.

"You heard the lady," Adder called out, "now let's get in there!"

Fox punched the engines of his Arwing III, reaching the inside of the hangar in no time at all. Once he extended the stabilizers and eased off on the thrust, he activated the bottom-mounted landing thrusters, which slowed the ship's descent so that it wouldn't smash into the floor. The vulpine then threw open the canopy and vaulted over the side and onto the floor. The blood-and-gore-covered floor, that is.

"Urgh, I think I'm gonna be sick…," Krystal looked away from the remains in disgust.

"Just be glad the hangar's clear," Xamuros commented as he landed and reverted to his bipedal form, as did every other Spade. As the brick-shaped transport dropships landed, they opened their doors to reveal eighteen assault, thirteen melee, and nine heavy weapons-class mechs, all of which were also colored a dark color.

"Sweet," Aloysius huffed. "So, Ace, where exactly are the beams supporting the ship?"

"I got a blueprint of the ship here," the albino spoke as he conjured up a small holographic imaging device. He pressed a button on it, revealing the schematics of the area around the hangar. "You see, the beams are criss-crossing between the inner and outer hull in an asterisk pattern." A row of at least thirty beams were highlighted. " There are exactly thirteen beams we need to displace before this section'll become unstable enough to be torn apart. Luckily, there are thirteen mercs, meaning us, here, and that means we each have thirteen nova bombs on us. We just need to set those bombs up where they intersect, then activate the timers simultaneously so we have enough time to locate Iradanus and/or Oikonny.

"Due to the size of the ship, the section we need to destroy is easily the length of a city. Therefore, our merc group needs to split up into groups of two, each pair of us taking a different transit platform. Xamuros should go with the one left over. I'm not saying it'll just be two of us taking on an entire battleship! That's what we have the mechs and Spades for. Two or three Spades and mechs should accompany each pair. Field Master, it's your call on how to split us."

"Do I always have to do this for you people?" the golden supersoldier sighed. "Very well. Just note, Fox, I'm going to have to split your family up for the sake of fewer distractions and better pairings."

"But…okay, I'm…fine with that," the vulpine reluctantly agreed.

"Alright, then," Xamuros began. "Fox, you'll go with Adder. Krystal, you're with Ace. Tallon'll go with Leon, and Marcus will be with Panther. Falco will be paired up with Cris. Brutus and Wolf'll be together. That means I'm with Aloysius."

"Hot damn," the berserker punched his fists together before dual wielding both his railgun and laser rocket launcher. "Let's do this!"

"Indeed," nodded the supersoldier commander. "Spades, mechs- split up as you see fit." Squads were formed rather quickly. Fox and Adder now had two additional Spades, two assault-class mechs, and a melee-class mech with them.

"Lieutenant Amahk, Sergeant Haxin, at your service, sirs," the Spade known as Amahk saluted.

After everyone was done assembling, they all headed towards the back of the hangar, where a large blast door was located. It was easily high enough to accommodate an Honor Guard mech, yet long enough to allow at least an entire division's worth of troops in side-by-side.

"Everyone, take cover," Fox ordered. "When that door opens, we're bound to have tons of humans and whatever else they've brought along with them to start beating down on us."

Luckily, there was enough debris generated by the sonic pulse's destruction to accommodate everyone, including the mechs, though they had to bend sometimes to take cover. Melee-class mechs had to stand to the sides of the door, since they would be useless until passages got tighter. A Spade ran up to a panel on the side of the door and began hacking into the system. It had no difficulty in doing so, despite having scythes for arms, and in a few more seconds, he was ready to open the blast doors.

"Alright, everyone!" the supersoldier at the door called out. "Get ready! I'm gonna open the door in three…two…one…opening door!"

He pressed a final button on the panel, then dashed for his piece of cover. A loud groan filled the hangar as the door began to creak open horizontally. Fox, who had taken cover behind what used to be a Harbinger's cockpit area next to Adder, readied his assault blaster and began charging it up. The weapon's massive slider pushed all the way back after a few seconds, signaling it was fully-charged. Adder had stowed his shotgun, instead taking out his Desert Eagles.

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought's_ armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought's_ armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought's_ armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought's_ armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought's_ armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought's_ armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

"Sir, Ace and I have been with you for a LONG time," Brutus crossed his arms. "You're not exactly the easiest person to kill. Like Cris said, you're not gonna die here."

"Hm," Adder closed his eyes. "So everyone's so sure of me…"

"I don't know about you guys," Ace called to everyone else, "but we've got to…oh, I don't know…GET MOVING BEFORE THE BLACK HOLE IS CREATED AND WE GET SUCKED UP BEFORE WE REACH THE _LEVIATHAN_!"

"Ace's right," Fox nodded. "Let's grab some nova bombs and get to the hangar."

"Well, of course I'm right! Have I ever been wrong about anything? Now, Leon, you're gonna have to choose a different fighter. We need speed for this mission. Same goes for you, Tallon."

After everyone loaded a nova bomb pack onto their back, the three teams headed for the nearby hangar, each getting into their fighters. Leon and Tallon, however, chose the Wolfen and Arwing respectively, as their own fighters were to slow to be used effectively in the given circumstances. Fox skipped the rungs on his ladder up to his new Arwing III, pushing it out of the way as he entered the cockpit and closed the canopy over him.

The vulpine leader had just established radio communications when Slippy spoke, "Alright, we're in the clear. Preparing for space launch now. Field Master Xamuros, what's your status?"

"The ULS fleet is out of range of the Gargantuans' targeting systems and Division-Z is go," the Spade announced. "As promised, my best Spades and mechs are going to join the battle. Ready when you are."

"Understood, sir. Well, guys…you're good to go. Opening hangar doors."

As the hangar's massive doors opened to reveal the expanse of space laid in front of them before a low-powered force field, Adder began, "Look…everyone…this is our biggest mission yet. The whole fate of the Lylat System rests on our shoulders. Awaiting us is a country-sized battleship- fully operational with a gigantic army inside to stop us. And we have to set up nova bombs on the inside to blow it all up, capture or kill Iradanus and/or Oikonny whom are probably heavily guarded…and then get out of the place before we all get caught in the ensuing explosion and loss of stability of the black hole.

"This mission is going to be damn tough, and there's a chance that…not all of us are gonna make it out alive. If that's…the case…then I want everyone to know it's been the golden age of my life working with you all. Thank you."

"Hear, hear," Fox nodded in agreement as everyone repeated after him.

"Everyone, let's just do our best to complete the job and live…Now, let's kick these humans' asses! For the Lylat System!"

Cheers and repeating calls broke out as the commandos-for-hire fired up their spacecrafts' engines, causing a wave of heat to be formed in the hangar. Once finished, the starships sped from the _Dreadnought_ and for the _Leviathan_. Fox eased off on the throttle as a dozen transport dropships in addition to Xamuros and at least fifty of his Spades in Longsword form arrived. Once everyone was in formation, Ace came in over the radio.

"Alright, everyone, here's how it goes," the albino pilot ace began. "First off, we're gonna need to get into the _Leviathan_ pretty darn quick, or we're gonna get blasted to bits by the defense system. For that, we need to drain all energy from our weapons and input them into our shields and engines, forty percent for shields and sixty percent for engines. Bloody Maw fighters should go into interceptor mode, then switch to omega configuration once we get in range of the targeting systems on that Gargantuan. Once the hangar is visible, we need to revert the energy input to regular and start firing into it while barrel rolling in order to soften up the defenses while at the same time preventing from taking too much damage. If all goes well, we came make it inside the hangar without taking that many hits.

"Once inside, we'll secure the hangar through some down and dirty fighting, using fighters, equipment, or whatever for cover. When that's taken care of, we'll proceed to set up the nova bombs at the location where the beams intersect within the inner hull. Since we can't exactly remote detonate them without being in range of the danger zone afterwards, we're gonna have to time them."

"What?!" Falco exclaimed. "You mean to tell us that we not only have to find Iradanus and Oikonny afterwards, but we're gonna have to do it _timed_?!"

"Would you rather the person getting close enough to send the transmission signal get blown up?" Ace retorted. "Exactly. Thirty minutes should be plenty of time to either kill or capture the two, if all goes according to plan."

"Which it probably won't," Xamuros interjected. "This is Iradanus we're dealing with."

"I'm quite aware of that, which is why I'm choosing thirty minutes instead of fifteen. Now, if I may continue…After we either complete or fail that secondary, we're gonna have to get the hell out of the ship before it all goes to blazes. We'll head out from the hangar same way we got in- draining weapons energy reserves to forty percent for shields and sixty for engines. This time, though, we'll punch our throttles to the max to get out of the danger zone as quick as possible. Then, boom, we win. Any additions or objections?"

"Good 'nuff for me," Wolf spoke. "Anyone else?" A series of negatives called out.

"Then we're set," Fox nodded. "Well, everyone, let's do this! Head for the _Leviathan_ when ready!"

As cheers went out, the kitsune began the energy shift, displacing the energy to the proper percentages specified. He then pushed the throttle, causing him to get mashed into his seat with the ensuing surge of speed. Though barely able to turn his head, he could see that everyone else was doing the same.

Within seconds, the starships had entered range of the _Leviathan_'s targeting systems, and a stream of directed energy beams and plasma began lacing the space around them, creating a web of enemy fire. The ships and Longswords started performing their barrel rolls, greenish auras of energy sprouting from their G-diffusers and enveloping them in a protective force field. The projectiles and beams simply glanced off upon impact against this force field, protecting the energy shield systems.

Chapter 16, Part 2: For the Lylat System…

The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf made great haste towards the _Dreadnought_'s armory, passing through a teleporter and then shooting downwards in designated elevators. Once the mercenaries reached their destination, they immediately set out to locate their favorite weapons and suit up in Ace's latest armor design.

Fox watched as his fellow commandos selected their weapons. Krystal chose a GM3-01 compact assault rifle, which was basically a standard assault rifle, just shortened to the point where it could be held with a single hand, and slammed a laser charge to the underside. Marcus, knowing there would be both tight quarters and massive rooms inside the Gargantuan _Leviathan_, chose a Dragunov Mk. III semi-auto bullet sniper rifle and began taping magazines together. Tallon went with a RIPJAW heavy machine gun, then began modifying the forward grip for more mobility. Falco went with a laser SMG and light blaster pistol and began testing their weight so he could dual-wield them.

Star Serpent's elite soldiers picked out some of the best weapons available. Brutus, though going with his signature chaingun, attached a miniature homing DEB cannon to the underside and grabbed especially lethal gas-expanding bullet drums. Ace calibrated his scissor-esque weapon, then selected his single-hand, armor-piercing firearm and attached an energy scythe to the tip of his tail. Aloysius went for just plain firepower- the berserker removed a BARG-21 (known as the "Big-Ass RailGun" among infantry) energy railgun and a man-portable laser rocket launcher off of their racks, attaching heavy-duty charges to both. Cris selected an AK-101L compact assault rifle along with her FBI-13 sniper carbine and began experimenting with an eclectic selection of attachments.

Meanwhile, Leon was loading himself up with all sorts of weapons. The chameleon had taken a plasma pistol… a laser SMG, a medium laser blaster pistol, an assortment of grenades, and a gravity knife (_Taking things in moderation, isn't he?_ Fox thought). Panther, in the meantime, chose a bullet assault repeating pistol in addition to a RFSS-PMG, or a Rapid-Fire, Scatter-Shot Plasma Machine Gun, which basically utilized barrels which looked akin to a tripod to deliver a spray of plasma bolts in a wide spread, much like a machine shotgun.

Fox observed the leaders of the other two teams. Wolf had already procured his two laser sub-machine guns, twirling them cowboy-style. The lupine also selected two flashbang and three splitter grenades, attaching them to his belt. Adder chose his father's pump-action shotgun and loaded 5-gauge shells into it. He also wore two ammunition bandoliers, which were lined with similar shotgun shells and criss-crossed his chest in an X-pattern. The serpent also took two of his Desert Eagle Mk. VI assault pistols, attaching combat ready laser-sights to both.

Fox chose his own weapon, the latest blaster pistol design- the assault class. The weapon had the same design as a regular blaster pistol, albeit it was three times the size. In fact, the pistol was so large for its class that it had a forward grip mounted under the barrel. In fact, the barrel itself was so wide, it looked like a golf ball could fit through. Though the weapon was easily overheated and more difficult to dual wield compared to its lighter variations, the lasers it could fire could easily penetrate a spider tank and its charged version fired a condensed sphere of laser energy much like a grenade launcher. The vulpine attached a heavy-duty laser charge to the underside, slamming it home after connecting the wires. Shortly after, he also picked up a few splitter and one flashbang grenades, and then swapped his assault blaster's forward grip for a pistol grip, enabling him to precisely aim quicker.

While everyone else was scrambling to experiment with different grenade combinations or weapons customizations, Fox was able to catch sight of Adder, who had managed to get to Cris. The vulpine smiled as he eavesdropped onto their conversation.

"Cris?" the hybrid serpent called to the arctic fox. "Can I…talk to you for a second?"

"Huh?" the vixen began to blush. "Um…sure?"

"Look…," Adder sighed before continuing. "I-I know…No, we both know that we've…been working with one another for…quite a while, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, we have, haven't we?" she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah…," the serpent now gained enough courage to speak. "So listen, ever since we've met back on Caravan, I…knew you were a…good person. You've always looked after everyone on our team, you've always been a good friend…and…lately…I…I've been thinking…a lot about you. Cris, I…well, ah…I…y'know…sorta…" Fox's eyes widened in shock as the serpent turned away from her. "Cris…just forget it."

"W…W-What?" Cris asked in a tinny voice, still dazed from what just happened.

"I-I'm really sorry," Adder almost whispered, "I really can't say…well, y'know what I was gonna say, right?" Fox exhaled in relief and grinned.

Cris' eyes glowed with happiness now, "You…you mean that you-"

"-I…guess so," Adder turned around, also smiling. "I can't say it now…especially with what's coming up…and what might happen…I mean…there's a chance that I might…might…"

"Adder, are you saying you're gonna _die_?!" Cris's outburst caused everyone to look directly at them.

"Well, very few can deny death," Adder said. "I mean, it's going to happen eventually, whether it be of old age or a car crash or fatal electrocution…"

"Adder, you're the best damn soldier out there!" Cris exclaimed. "Uh, no offense, Aloysius."

"None taken," the bat crossed his arms.

"Adder, you can take down whole enemy bases alone and blow 'em up _unscathed_! You've survived through three whole wars- Lylat, Aparoid, and Anglar! Hell, you've survived through this war up 'til now! If you're gonna die, it's not gonna be on the battlefield!"

"Sir, Ace and I have been with you for a LONG time," Brutus crossed his arms. "You're not exactly the easiest person to kill. Like Cris said, you're not gonna die here."

"Hm," Adder closed his eyes. "So everyone's so sure of me…"

"I don't know about you guys," Ace called to everyone else, "but we've got to…oh, I don't know…GET MOVING BEFORE THE BLACK HOLE IS CREATED AND WE GET SUCKED UP BEFORE WE REACH THE _LEVIATHAN_!"

"Ace's right," Fox nodded. "Let's grab some nova bombs and get to the hangar."

"Well, of course I'm right! Have I ever been wrong about anything? Now, Leon, you're gonna have to choose a different fighter. We need speed for this mission. Same goes for you, Tallon."

After everyone loaded a nova bomb pack onto their back, the three teams headed for the nearby hangar, each getting into their fighters. Leon and Tallon, however, chose the Wolfen and Arwing respectively, as their own fighters were to slow to be used effectively in the given circumstances. Fox skipped the rungs on his ladder up to his new Arwing III, pushing it out of the way as he entered the cockpit and closed the canopy over him.

The vulpine leader had just established radio communications when Slippy spoke, "Alright, we're in the clear. Preparing for space launch now. Field Master Xamuros, what's your status?"

"The ULS fleet is out of range of the Gargantuans' targeting systems and Division-Z is go," the Spade announced. "As promised, my best Spades and mechs are going to join the battle. Ready when you are."

"Understood, sir. Well, guys…you're good to go. Opening hangar doors."

As the hangar's massive doors opened to reveal the expanse of space laid in front of them before a low-powered force field, Adder began, "Look…everyone…this is our biggest mission yet. The whole fate of the Lylat System rests on our shoulders. Awaiting us is a country-sized battleship- fully operational with a gigantic army inside to stop us. And we have to set up nova bombs on the inside to blow it all up, capture or kill Iradanus and/or Oikonny whom are probably heavily guarded…and then get out of the place before we all get caught in the ensuing explosion and loss of stability of the black hole.

"This mission is going to be damn tough, and there's a chance that…not all of us are gonna make it out alive. If that's…the case…then I want everyone to know it's been the golden age of my life working with you all. Thank you."

"Hear, hear," Fox nodded in agreement as everyone repeated after him.

"Everyone, let's just do our best to complete the job and live…Now, let's kick these humans' asses! For the Lylat System!"

Cheers and repeating calls broke out as the commandos-for-hire fired up their spacecrafts' engines, causing a wave of heat to be formed in the hangar. Once finished, the starships sped from the _Dreadnought_ and for the _Leviathan_. Fox eased off on the throttle as a dozen transport dropships in addition to Xamuros and at least fifty of his Spades in Longsword form arrived. Once everyone was in formation, Ace came in over the radio.

"Alright, everyone, here's how it goes," the albino pilot ace began. "First off, we're gonna need to get into the _Leviathan_ pretty darn quick, or we're gonna get blasted to bits by the defense system. For that, we need to drain all energy from our weapons and input them into our shields and engines, forty percent for shields and sixty percent for engines. Bloody Maw fighters should go into interceptor mode, then switch to omega configuration once we get in range of the targeting systems on that Gargantuan. Once the hangar is visible, we need to revert the energy input to regular and start firing into it while barrel rolling in order to soften up the defenses while at the same time preventing from taking too much damage. If all goes well, we came make it inside the hangar without taking that many hits.

"Once inside, we'll secure the hangar through some down and dirty fighting, using fighters, equipment, or whatever for cover. When that's taken care of, we'll proceed to set up the nova bombs at the location where the beams intersect within the inner hull. Since we can't exactly remote detonate them without being in range of the danger zone afterwards, we're gonna have to time them."

"What?!" Falco exclaimed. "You mean to tell us that we not only have to find Iradanus and Oikonny afterwards, but we're gonna have to do it _timed_?!"

"Would you rather the person getting close enough to send the transmission signal get blown up?" Ace retorted. "Exactly. Thirty minutes should be plenty of time to either kill or capture the two, if all goes according to plan."

"Which it probably won't," Xamuros interjected. "This is Iradanus we're dealing with."

"I'm quite aware of that, which is why I'm choosing thirty minutes instead of fifteen. Now, if I may continue…After we either complete or fail that secondary, we're gonna have to get the hell out of the ship before it all goes to blazes. We'll head out from the hangar same way we got in- draining weapons energy reserves to forty percent for shields and sixty for engines. This time, though, we'll punch our throttles to the max to get out of the danger zone as quick as possible. Then, boom, we win. Any additions or objections?"

"Good 'nuff for me," Wolf spoke. "Anyone else?" A series of negatives called out.

"Then we're set," Fox nodded. "Well, everyone, let's do this! Head for the _Leviathan_ when ready!"

As cheers went out, the kitsune began the energy shift, displacing the energy to the proper percentages specified. He then pushed the throttle, causing him to get mashed into his seat with the ensuing surge of speed. Though barely able to turn his head, he could see that everyone else was doing the same.

Within seconds, the starships had entered range of the _Leviathan_'s targeting systems, and a stream of directed energy beams and plasma began lacing the space around them, creating a web of enemy fire. The ships and Longswords started performing their barrel rolls, greenish auras of energy sprouting from their G-diffusers and enveloping them in a protective force field. The projectiles and beams simply glanced off upon impact against this force field, protecting the energy shield systems.

Fox was trying to keep from becoming too disoriented during the barrel roll by maintaining a steady grip on the yoke. Every so often, a few of the fighters had to break off from their barrel roll to both reorient themselves and to recharge energy for the maneuver. During this, other fighters who still have enough energy would block incoming shots for them.

The next several minutes passed uneventfully. Now realizing that they couldn't damage the fighters and dropships, the defense system's operators simply gave up trying to bombard them. As they neared the hangar, however, they found it be sealed shut. In order to prevent from crashing into the ship and running out of energy by braking, everyone merely flew around in random patterns.

"What?!" Panther growled. "Ace, you didn't mention that they could've closed the hangar doors!"

"Well, this certainly is a bit of a problem," Xamuros commented. "The doors are probably of the same material as the rest of the ship, so any ideas on how to get in soon? That black dwarf is shrinking by the second! If we don't get in before the black hole is generated, it'll overpower our G-diffusers and suck us all in!"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Ace snarled. "…Let's see…the door has to open, so that means that the line separating the two doors is the weak point. Krystal, can you do a half-roll and fire your sonic pulse emitter at that crack?"

"I'm on it," the vixen acknowledged. In a second, the Cloudskater was turned sideways, and everyone covered their ears as she fired again. For the third time, Fox's hearing had been reduced to a dull ring as the wave of sonic force slammed into the crack in between the two doors.

After much inaudible cursing and everyone's hearing had returned to normal, Ace asked, "Field Master, can you get those Spades of yours to get on the sides of the door and roll it along its rails?"

"I can," Xamuros confirmed. "And I shall. Everyone, let's get on either side of that hangar door and open it up!"

With that, the Longswords boosted along the side of the Leviathan before reverting back to their bipedal forms. Each of the Division Z Spades were of an ebony black with the photoreceptors and energy stripes a silver color. The cyborgs got on either side of the two doors and dug their scythe-like arms into it. They tugged with all their strength, causing the door to start creaking open.

"Alright, guys," Wolf began, "this is where the real action starts! Once the doors are open, fire into the hangar again with that sonic pulse emitter once the Spades are clear, Krystal. Let's make sure this hangar is as clear as possible before we get inside."

"Will do," the telepath complied, getting her Cloudskater into position. At last, the Spades had gotten the doors to build enough momentum to slide all the way along the rails, and they reverted back to Longsword form and boosted out of the way. The inside of the hangar, which was protected with a low-class force field like any other ship, was a spotless white, and was lined with a multitude of Seraph-class starfighters and Harbingers placed in neat rows…as well as a welcoming party of about two regiments' worth of human soldiers, four Tandem-Drones, and six Sentries. Krystal merely fired once, causing blood, gore, and all sorts of mechanical parts lay strewn across the entire room, including those of the several squadrons' worth of Seraphim and Harbingers destroyed in the attack. When the Tandem-Drones tried to reassemble themselves, she fired another shot, and the parts laid still.

"Hangar is clear," the vixen reported.

"You heard the lady," Adder called out, "now let's get in there!"

Fox punched the engines of his Arwing III, reaching the inside of the hangar in no time at all. Once he extended the stabilizers and eased off on the thrust, he activated the bottom-mounted landing thrusters, which slowed the ship's descent so that it wouldn't smash into the floor. The vulpine then threw open the canopy and vaulted over the side and onto the floor. The blood-and-gore-covered floor, that is.

"Urgh, I think I'm gonna be sick…," Krystal looked away from the remains in disgust.

"Just be glad the hangar's clear," Xamuros commented as he landed and reverted to his bipedal form, as did every other Spade. As the brick-shaped transport dropships landed, they opened their doors to reveal eighteen assault, thirteen melee, and nine heavy weapons-class mechs, all of which were also colored a dark color.

"Sweet," Aloysius huffed. "So, Ace, where exactly are the beams supporting the ship?"

"I got a blueprint of the ship here," the albino spoke as he conjured up a small holographic imaging device. He pressed a button on it, revealing the schematics of the area around the hangar. "You see, the beams are criss-crossing between the inner and outer hull in an asterisk pattern." A row of at least thirty beams were highlighted. " There are exactly thirteen beams we need to displace before this section'll become unstable enough to be torn apart. Luckily, there are thirteen mercs, meaning us, here, and that means we each have thirteen nova bombs on us. We just need to set those bombs up where they intersect, then activate the timers simultaneously so we have enough time to locate Iradanus and/or Oikonny.

"Due to the size of the ship, the section we need to destroy is easily the length of a city. Therefore, our merc group needs to split up into groups of two, each pair of us taking a different transit platform. Xamuros should go with the one left over. I'm not saying it'll just be two of us taking on an entire battleship! That's what we have the mechs and Spades for. Two or three Spades and mechs should accompany each pair. Field Master, it's your call on how to split us."

"Do I always have to do this for you people?" the golden supersoldier sighed. "Very well. Just note, Fox, I'm going to have to split your family up for the sake of fewer distractions and better pairings."

"But…okay, I'm…fine with that," the vulpine reluctantly agreed.

"Alright, then," Xamuros began. "Fox, you'll go with Adder. Krystal, you're with Ace. Tallon'll go with Leon, and Marcus will be with Panther. Falco will be paired up with Cris. Brutus and Wolf'll be together. That means I'm with Aloysius."

"Hot damn," the berserker punched his fists together before dual wielding both his railgun and laser rocket launcher. "Let's do this!"

"Indeed," nodded the supersoldier commander. "Spades, mechs- split up as you see fit." Squads were formed rather quickly. Fox and Adder now had two additional Spades, two assault-class mechs, and a melee-class mech with them.

"Lieutenant Amahk, Sergeant Haxin, at your service, sirs," the Spade known as Amahk saluted.

After everyone was done assembling, they all headed towards the back of the hangar, where a large blast door was located. It was easily high enough to accommodate an Honor Guard mech, yet long enough to allow at least an entire division's worth of troops in side-by-side.

"Everyone, take cover," Fox ordered. "When that door opens, we're bound to have tons of humans and whatever else they've brought along with them to start beating down on us."

Luckily, there was enough debris generated by the sonic pulse's destruction to accommodate everyone, including the mechs, though they had to bend sometimes to take cover. Melee-class mechs had to stand to the sides of the door, since they would be useless until passages got tighter. A Spade ran up to a panel on the side of the door and began hacking into the system. It had no difficulty in doing so, despite having scythes for arms, and in a few more seconds, he was ready to open the blast doors.

"Alright, everyone!" the supersoldier at the door called out. "Get ready! I'm gonna open the door in three…two…one…opening door!"

He pressed a final button on the panel, then dashed for his piece of cover. A loud groan filled the hangar as the door began to creak open horizontally. Fox, who had taken cover behind what used to be a Harbinger's cockpit area next to Adder, readied his assault blaster and began charging it up. The weapon's massive slider pushed all the way back after a few seconds, signaling it was fully-charged. Adder had stowed his shotgun, instead taking out his Desert Eagles.

No sooner had the door had only opened about a foot when several dozen grenades were chucked inside. Cursing filling the air, the Lylatians and machines went as low as they could while explosions went off, shrapnel flying all over the place. Immediately after the deadly shards stopped raining, they popped up from their cover…to view the most daunting sight of all.

Beyond the hangar doors was a massive network of transit stations, all linked to one another by high-speed laser rail platforms and elevators. These transit stations were large enough, usually the size of a football field each. Floors upon floors were stacked upon one another, both up and down. Unfortunately, what was on all these floors and stations caught everyone's eyes. Human soldiers were everywhere to be seen. The boarding force was extremely minuscule in comparison. However, the Lylatians and their allies had accessible cover, evening the odds slightly.

The Lylatians, Spades, and allied mechs began opening fire at once against the enemy while they did the same. Lasers flashed this way and that, directed energy beams laced the air, plasma zapped across the field of battle, and explosive projectiles flew all over the place in a dazzling showcase of light and explosions. Fox angled his assault blaster upwards, then with the returning of the slider to its original position, let loose the charged projectile. It curved upwards through the air, then plunged downwards on a mob of human soldiers, causing an explosion that tossed several into the air and set the others aflame.

The vulpine, shortly after taking cover to avoid getting blown to bits, followed up with rapid-fire blaster shots, each of the high-powered lasers creating a searing sound before it found its target, cleanly severing limbs, exploding chests and heads, and torching everything else.

"Well, this sucks," Fox bit his lip. "Why does it seem like we're always outnumbered?"

"It's because we usually are!" Adder yelled back in reply. "And it's not gonna stop here on a country-sized battleship!"

"Ugh, damn!" Aloysius cursed as several light screens expanded in front of him to block plasma shots passing through his cover. "Would someone take care of those freaking plasma weapons?!"

"I'll see what I can do," Panther called out as he started up his RFSS-PMG. After the barrels had been brought up to speed, he let laced the air with a scattershot of plasma, which worked much like a machine shotgun. Humans were cut down as the bolts of plasma found their targets, while others sought suitable cover.

"Splitters out!" Tallon yelled as two of the spheres of raining death were chucked into the middle of a transit station. Fox got down, covering his head with his hands and assault blaster while everyone else did the same. Explosions started sounding off a few seconds later, sending shrapnel everywhere and pulverizing the human soldiers. Some of the shrapnel had blown over the boarding party, causing a bit of shrapnel to hit them as well, though they had the benefit of light screens or energy shields or thick armor.

As everyone peeked out from behind cover, Falco whistled, then commented, "What a spaz! Everyone alright?"

"We're all good," Xamuros responded…and was promptly blown off of his feet as a sniper hit him squarely in the chest. Marcus quickly scanned the area and floors above for snipers and quickly rewarded the human with a headshot, her brains scattering everywhere.

"Are you alright, sir?" a worried Spade asked.

"This happens too often," the field master shook his head and got to his feet. "Well, it seems this area is clear. Resistance was quite low, so-"

"Low?!" Falco gaped. "You call that low? We just took out probably a whole division's worth of humans!"

"That's relatively low compared to what else may be on the _Leviathan_. As I was saying, resistance was quite low, so that must mean their digging themselves in at the supporting beam locations."

"Which is _exactly_ what we wanna hear," Cris said sarcastically.

"Well, it's true," Marcus shrugged. "So I guess we split up now and begin heading for the beam locations?"

"Not yet," Ace shook his head. "We're still a couple floors below the beam intersection points. These elevators should do the trick."

"Eh, works for me," Fox shrugged. "Just get ready to blast anything that's waiting for us.

Fox, Adder, and their accompanying Spades stepped into a transit station, while each squad did the same. Haxin began hacking into the computer terminal while the vulpine, the serpent, and the rest of the squad got in ready positions, covering each other's blind spots.

"Alright…we're in," Haxin reported. "Awaiting orders, field master."

"Does everyone have access to their elevators?" Xamuros asked, shouting so that everyone could hear him. A series of confirmations and affirmatives called out, and the golden Spade ordered, "Then, let's get moving!"

"Going up, everyone," Haxin announced before tapping the screen. With that, the elevator began its ascent. They shortly passed a floor…which was quite empty. There was nothing on it, save for a few transit platforms and elevators that were answering the call buttons elsewhere.

"I don't like this," Adder whispered.

"Neither do I," Fox replied. "Either they're reinforcing the defenses at the beams, or…-"

"-they're waiting for us." Amahk finished.

"Perfect assessment, Spade."

As the boarding party reached their destination floor, everyone turned to see the speaker. Oikonny was standing on one of the nearby transit stations, armed with what looked like a heavy DEB cannon and was looking as if he'd already won. The reason was that standing next to him…was the aurora-colored Epitome of Light. The simian's expression vanished when Adder shot him in the head with his shotgun.

"Damn you," Oikonny growled, shortly before getting shot again. "Stop shooting-" he was hit again. "STOP SHOOTING AT ME! I CAN'T DIE, YOU IDIOT!"

It was then that the Epitome of Light fired a thin beam of energy from its hand at the serpent. A light shield popped up, deflecting the beam of light energy upwards, where it caused a rocket-sized explosion. However, the force of the reflection, blew Adder off of his feet and shorted out his light screen shield system. This, in turn, caused the group to retaliate by letting loose their own barrage into the Epitome of Light. Bullets, Jackhammer shards, and Daggerblade projectiles simply passed through the entity, not affecting it in any visible way. Lasers, plasma, and directed energy, however, seemed to be a nuisance to the creature…but not at all a big one. The luminous being now raised its hands, ready to attack…but to everyone's surprise…Oikonny was now taking direct aim at the Epitome…

The simian fired his HDEB cannon at the Epitome, causing it to wail in pain. As ozone filled the air, the monster was being forced backward by such a high-powered energy weapon. Before long, it had reached the end of the transit station and had tumbled off, impacting against the laser guide rails of the transportation system, where it was shortly reduced to a quickly dispersing lightshow of light particles.

"When this war is over," the simian turned back, smiling, "you all owe me big time."

"Wha-?" Fox stared in surprise. "But-…Why did…Did you just…-"

"Will you be finishing any of those sentences?" Oikonny sighed. "So you'd actually think I would be stupid enough to betray my own race just for getting returned back into this hell we call reality?"

"Pretty much," Wolf now bore a "does-this-idiot-even-realize-how-much-of-a-hypocrite-he-is?" expression.

"Funny, Wolf," the ape sarcastically replied. "And what the hell are you all still doing here? Get to setting up the nova bombs or we're all as good as dead! Including me!"

"I thought you said you couldn't die?" Ace squinted an eye at the simian.

"Not by conventional means, at least- and a black hole ain't exactly conventional. Now get moving. The Epitome of Light's probably only been temporarily dispersed. When it reforms, I'll try to hold it off as long as I can while you plant the bombs." Suddenly, the ship suddenly lurched, causing everyone to jump, minus Oikonny.

"Attention all personnel," an officer called over the intercom, "the black hole has just been generated. I repeat- the black hole has just been generated. There is no cause for alarm for the sudden shuddering."

"If the fact that the Epitome'll reform in a few minutes isn't enough, that's probably enough motivation to get you moving," Oikonny spoke.

"Alright, you heard the ape, everyone!" Xamuros called out. "Let's get going! Every separate setup group will get into individual transit platforms and head off towards their pre-determined support beam!"

As Fox and his group headed for a transit platform, Oikonny leered at Adder, who had gotten up by now, and spoke, "Today, we'll be united for the Lylat System. Tomorrow…if any one of us has lived to see the other…it will mean conflict."

"I would expect nothing more," the hybrid snake coolly replied. "Let's go, Fox. Amahk, where's our target beam junctions?"

"The first one's due half-a-mile towards the stern of the ship, sir," the Division-Z Spade responded. "The next is half that distance away. There'll surely be heavy enemy resistance along the way and at the destination."

"That's to be expected," Fox tilted his head sideways for a moment in acknowledgement. "Sergeant, start up the platform, will you?"

"Negative, Commander McCloud," Haxin sighed. "The humans have cut off the power to this part of the ship's transport system. We're gonna have to go by foot, sirs."

"Perfect," Adder sighed sarcastically. "Convert to Longswords. The melee mechs will take point while we infantry'll go after. The assault mechs will cover up the rear."

"Understood, sir," the Spade complied, he and his fellow brother in creation collapsing into their hovercraft form. Fox and Adder mounted up on Amahk and Haxin respectively, while mechs got into position. The squad then headed off towards their designated targets. Other groups were doing the same, realizing the power was out.

The squad headed towards the port side of the ship, where several large cargo doors were located. Upon reaching it, the melee mechs simply rammed right through them, and through the choking dust and debris, enemy fire started lacing the air.

"Damn!" Fox cursed. "Take cover behind the rubble!"

As the vulpine and serpent dismounted the Longswords, they leapt behind remnants of the cargo door. Through the dust, Fox could easily make out three automated turrets that popped down from holes in the ceiling and were unleashing streams of directed energy towards the intruders.

"Melee mech!" Adder called out. "Get in there and tackle those turrets! We'll draw their fire! Everyone ready? Covering fire!"

Fox leaned out from behind his chunk of debris for a second to fire two shots from this assault blaster, as did every else. The turrets programming made them immediately start firing upon the most immediate threats- them. While they were distracted, the melee mech quickly dashed in and rammed the turrets out of their placements, the twisted parts scattering across the floor as sparks flew from the ruined tips.

"C'mon, let's move!" Fox ordered. "It's too risky going by Longsword- we'll just have to go by foot in order to prevent getting a drop on!"

The others complied with this order, dashing through the door and hurrying towards the specified beam junction. In a matter of seconds, however, plasma and bullet fire began shooting around and through steel crates. Fox and the others sought cover again, firing a few shots when they could. The vulpine could easily penetrate the crates with his assault blaster, the high-powered lasers shearing through to the humans on the other side. Adder had similar results, since his shotgun was powerful enough to shred right through the containers. Mechs…well, they either rammed right through them or blew whole sections of the room apart. No sooner that they had moved on and went past a corner that it happened again.

"Dammit, if this keeps on happening every so often, we're not gonna reach the junctions in time!" Haxin growled before blowing open the head of a human soldier with a burst of Jackhammers.

"Sorry to remind you, but I don't see a faster way that won't get us killed!" Adder shouted back as he fired two more shots before starting to reload, with Amahk covering him while he did so.

_By the time we're done with the junctions, I'll be out of a laser charge_, Fox thought as he fired off another charged projectile from his blaster. Empty crates and torn limbs flew everywhere with the ensuing explosion, and he breathed a sigh of relief seeing that there weren't any enemies left in the area. That was before he spotted the floating weapons.

"Cloaked humans!" he screamed as everyone else scrambled back into cover as the invisible foes fired upon them, getting into an alcove just as they opened fire.

"Damn, I thought we saw the last of 'em back on Venom!" Amahk grumbled as he fired a plasma SMG burst into them.

"Wish it were so," Adder called back before blowing off the head of one of the stealthy troops.

"Well, you can see 'em anyways!" Fox smirked as he managed to disrupt another one's camo with a couple blind shots. "You're half pit viper!"

A few more minutes of shooting resulted in the carcasses of six additional humans on the ground. The Lylatians, Spades, and mechs hurried once more to their designated targets, moving quickly but cautiously in the quickly narrowing hallways.

"Adder, that last comment of mine brings something to mind," Fox spoke to Adder. "How'd you get that name of yours if you aren't even one?"

"Now is _definitely_ not the time for that, Fox," he growled back as a round whizzed by him. "It's a long story."

Several minutes passed by in a similar fashion, with the squad fighting their way through the hallways. The humans had time to prepare further on, putting down small blast shields, basically portable, movable cover. After dispatching those taking cover behind them, Fox and the others turned the enemy's advantage into their own, using their own blast shields as cover against them. A grueling half-hour later, the team made it to their first target beam junction unscathed.

"Everyone, stop here," Adder ordered, causing the group to halt about fifty yards from the junction to the support beam housing area. "I'll scout ahead."

The serpent quietly crept up to the corner, checked the immediate area, then motioned for them to move ahead quietly.

Once the rest of the squad caught up, Fox inquired, "What do we have?"

"Things aren't gonna be easy," Adder shook his head. "I didn't even dare look around the corner- every single one of the guys protecting the support beam are aiming at it. We rush forward, we are thoroughly…fucked."

"What's out there, sir?" Haxin asked.

"We have what looks like a small battalion of regular humans and cloaked ones," he started. "I spotted some of those Koteki there as well. There's some additional spider tank support at the flanks with two aiming straight at the entryway. We also have an Honor Guard mech behind those two tanks. Like I said, if we go rushing through or even past that doorway, we're as good as dead."

"So how the hell are we supposed to deal with this?!" Fox exclaimed. "Two Lylatians, a couple of Spades, and three mechs can't engage all of those and expect to win!"

"I've been against worse odds," Adder replied. "Then again, that was when I was much younger. Back to the point, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that I have a plan, and it has a possibility of working. The bad news is that it involves crawling through some really tight- and I mean reaaaally tight- spaces, requires a high amount of accuracy, and eliminating targets in a precise order and fashion. If we can't do all of that correctly, we're all dead."

"Not like we have much of a better choice," Fox shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Well, it's easier said than done," the cobra-pit viper hybrid began. "The mechs will have to remain behind until we give them the signal to charge in and open fire. I spotted a series of ventilation shafts overhead that could allow us to get the drop on the enemy. Unfortunately, the entry point is a bit back from where we came from, and after a bit of a crawl, it's a six-story climb. A six-story, vertical climb."

"Shiiiiaat…," Amahk cursed.

"I do recall saying that it would be easier said than done," Adder responded, then continued. "After that, it's gonna involve crawling above the enemy position. I spotted a shipping system overhead transporting some kind of containers. This is where the accuracy comes in. While I cut a hole in the shaft and drop two splitter grenades down, Fox will have to shoot through the wall of the shaft and shear through the cables of a passing container while it's passing overhead the Honor Guard mech. Those things look big and heavy enough to crush the mech, and there's a chance they might contain some kind of explosives. If they do, it all works out in our favor. If not, it'll at least get rid of our biggest worry- the mech."

"Wait, I have to blindly fire through the wall of the ventilation shaft and hit a cable?!" Fox left his mouth agape.

"I can help you locate it," Adder answered, "but it'll have to depend on your response time from my order and the steadiness of your aim for the most part. Now once the mech and most of the troops are taken care of by the shipping container and splitters, the mechs will charge in and start taking out the leftovers once the splitters wear off. We'll fire down from above. Spider tanks take priority at that point, then cloaked soldiers, Koteki, and regular humans respectively."

"That has a fair chance of working, actually, sir," Haxin nodded.

"Really?" Fox raised an eyebrow.

"Well…," the Spade made a shrugging motion, "by 'fair' I mean 'the best and only'."

"Well, what choice do we have?" the vulpine shrugged. "Let's do this."

* * *

Fox, Adder, Haxin, and Amahk were grudgingly crawling their way through the low, narrow ventilation shaft. The fact it was dark to the point they activated their night vision settings and that it was extremely cramped was not making it any better for the four. After a few minutes of crawling, grunting, and extreme soreness, they reached their first hurdle- the vertical climb. Luckily, there was enough room at that point so that Fox and Adder to stretch their sore limbs.

"Okay, remind me again how I'm gonna get up there?" Fox asked. "You all have mechanical limbs, but, uh…"

"I want you to stand still," Adder replied, "close your eyes, and think happy thoughts."

"…You're gonna pull off the 'Aloysius', aren't you?"

"Pretty much, but with a few changes since I can only throw you up part way. Now get ready."

Fox (with some reluctance) stood still and prepared himself for pain while Adder grabbed him and threw him upwards. Like he stated, he only had the strength to through him about twenty feet into the air, so the serpent sprang up, caught the vulpine in mid-air, then threw him up again. Adder then leapt from one side of the shaft to the other (wall jumping, if you will) while repeating the process a few more times until they reached the top safely. The Spades followed shortly after, simply scrambling up by puncturing the sides of the shaft with their limbs.

"For some reason," Fox laughed a bit after landing at the top, "you do the 'Aloysius' better than the person who invented it."

"Be thankful that it wasn't painful," Adder smirked. "Now let's get moving."

The foursome crawled their way through the ventilation shaft once again, and after ten minutes of additional crawling, Adder ordered them to halt. Amahk and Haxin prepared to cut open a hole in the shaft to attack through, while Fox and Adder sat against the wall of the shaft, though it was so cramped, they were in a fetal position. The vulpine unholstered his assault blaster while the serpent picked out his three splitter grenades, holding them in his right arm.

"Aim down the sight," Adder ordered Fox. As he complied, the veteran commando adjusted Fox's arms. "Good. That's where the cable should be once it's above the Honor Guard mech. As said, this is going to require a very, very good reaction time and steady aim. I'm going to give you the command exactly one second before you should fire. To make sure you hit, fire a three-shot burst, alright? Good. Haxin, Amahk- I want you to cut a hole and open fire the moment Fox fires his shots. I'll do the same. That way, we can take down as many enemies as possible when taking the splitters into consideration."

"Speaking of 'splitters'," Amahk spoke in a worried tone, "how can we be sure the shrapnel doesn't reach all the way up here?"

"I…actually don't know about that," the serpent reluctantly admitted. "Ace didn't exactly specify the grenade type's maximum range."

"Well, isn't that lovely?" Fox sarcastically sighed. "There's still a chance we're gonna die anyways, even if this works."

"Just don't think about it," Adder replied, extending the energy scythe on his left mechanical arm, illuminating the darkness of the shaft. "Deactivate night vision, and keep those arms steady. Get ready to fire…Wait for it…Wait for it………………NOW!"

Fox counted in his mind, _One-one-thousand_… before pulling the trigger once, twice, thrice in quick succession. As the hissing of the metal wall of the shaft filled their ears, additional sounds were heard, namely the cutting of the floor being done by the others…and the sound of metal cables shearing. Fox had done it. He had blindly fired at a target no more than four inches wide on the reliance of his reflexes and his trust in Adder…and he had done it.

A surprised moan and cries of surprise filled the Lylatians' and Spades' ears (or sound receptors) that were quickly followed by a deafening thud …and a humongous explosion from whatever was inside the shipping container. Adder had by now cut a good-sized hole in the floor and threw his splitter grenades down towards the floor below, now obscured in a gray plume of smoke caused by the tremendous explosion. At the same time, the serpent and Spades were now firing into the dazed enemy forces, their accuracy aided by thermal vision settings or heat-sensitive pits. In the meantime, Fox fired his assault blaster pistol to form a circle of sheared metal, which dropped out of the way, allowing him to fire blindly into the chaos below. Then the splitters detonated.

Three good-sized explosions sounded off, and cries of pain were audible as the first stage of the splitter initiated. It was then followed by the next explosive stages, and more explosions filled the air. Thankfully, Fox, Adder, and the two Spades were out of range, since the shrapnel hardly flew upwards. They still kept up their fire though, and when the smoke finally cleared, they could now accurately dispatch their targets…while the mechs rushed in.

"Alright, the mechs are in!" Adder confirmed. "Take out targets of higher priorities first! That means spider tanks, Fox!"

Fox nodded in reply and began charging up his assault blaster. Three seconds later, he let loose the flaming projectile between two of the armored vehicles, and the ensuing explosion blew them off of their feet and left them vulnerable to incoming attacks from the Spades' Jackhammers or the mechs' rampage. As Fox began moving onto other targets, a roar filled his ears as some sort of human-bear Koteku leapt up to the ventilation shaft's underside. The hideous creature was without fur, but it still slightly resembled an ursine…plus the dagger-length claws and a shotgun.

The Koteku quickly slashed through the hole Adder had created to allow itself to enter, firing off a twenty-gauge shell at Adder, who was actually knocked sideways into Haxin by the force of the blast despite having the shields block the bullets. The serpent quickly retaliated with a barrage of bullets from his own shotgun, not even having to worry about hitting anyone else since the Koteku was so bulky it blocked off Fox from the projectiles. The bear-human hybrid quickly fell to the staggering amount of rounds being pumped into it, especially now that Adder took out a Desert Eagle in his other hand and fired four times into its head.

After the serpent kicked the twisted soldier out of the shaft, he growled, "I hate those things so damn much!"

"Shit, there's more coming!" Amahk cried.

Alas, the Spade was correct. Humans combined with a variety of animals- reptiles, arachnids, avians, arthropods- were leaping up towards the shaft with superhuman strength, some using their fellow soldiers as a footstool for jumping those last few stories towards their enemies in a lust for blood. The four squadmates quickly began blasting the Koteki to pieces. In a moment, one of the biogenetically-altered soldiers had had its gut blasted open by Fox's assault blaster. In another, three Koteki had been accurately nailed by Jackhammer shards and plasma SMG burns. Finally, a whole group was blown apart into little bits and pieces by shells from Adder's shotgun.

"Commander McBannon," Haxin huffed, "I think we understand how you feel now."

"Yeah, no shit," Adder growled in reply before moving onto the last humans that remained. Thankfully, since the mechs had been dealing with them, there weren't that many at all. A couple dozen shots later, the entire enemy force had been wiped out.

"Yeah, now that's what I call an excellent plan!" Fox laughed.

"…About that," Adder looked away, "I kinda…left out something…"

"…Which would be…?" Fox rolled his left index and middle finger, implying he wanted an answer.

"How to get back down."

Fox blinked a few times to make sure he had heard the serpent correctly before looking at the rest of the ventilation shaft. So many bullet and laser holes had pierced and seared through the metal floor that one false move could compromise the integrity, leaving them to plummet to the unforgiving ground…six stories below.

The vulpine closed his eyes and let out a stressful sigh, "…Damn."

* * *

Author's Notes- Again, sorry for the long upload delay even though this is already long-completed.

Anyways, this specific part was made after...what, a year-long hiatus? Imagine me coming back to this fanfic after a whole year and trying to finish it up after the fall of the original NSider community and trying to find another place to post it (preferably one with other NSider refugees). The quality went down a little, unfortunately. I guessed I felt a little too eager to get to work on the sequel_, Rise of the Echelon_. Still, these last few parts have some merit and shining points to them, so please read and review. Remember, I like constructive criticism and advanced critique if possible!


	33. Chapter 16, Part 3: Countdown

Chapter 16, Part 3: Countdown

"Adder, I'm sorry if I'm offending you," Fox growled, "but coming up with a plan like that and forgetting how to get back down?!"

"Yeah, I don't blame you for feeling that way," the serpent tilted his head from side to side slowly. "Okay…Well, I'm sure you Spades would be fine and could easily land safely from this height. As for Fox and myself…not so much."

"I have an idea, sir," Haxin spoke, "This ventilation shaft will collapse practically no matter what we do, correct?"

"Yes…," Fox nodded slowly, "but what are you implying?"

"Well, why don't we help it get on its way? We could just cause one side of the shaft to shear itself, letting us slide back down to the floor."

The two Lylatians stared blankly at the Spade before Adder shrugged, "I get what you're saying, but it doesn't appeal to me."

"Either way," his vulpine comrade sighed, "we're ending up going down six stories. Let's do it and hope nothing bad happens."

"Alright," the Division-Z Spade nodded, "Commander McCloud, I'd like to have you fire at that pockmarked area waaaay over there."

"That one?" Fox asked, indicating a faraway section which had been pierced by bullets. With an affirmative nod from Haxin, he reluctantly fired four shots, which caused the shaft to shear off from the main portion, creating a near-forty-five-degree angle with the portion of the ventilation shaft the four squadmates were in and the floor below. As it did so, they began to slide forward at a good speed. It seemed like they would reach the bottom without harm.

Unfortunately, the key word was "seemed". About halfway down, the weakened shaft's floor gave away, causing the four soldiers to fall over thirty feet down to the ground below. And they landed hard. Fortunately for them, their shield systems were able to cushion the impact to a point where it only resulted in a dull soreness.

"Augh," Fox groaned, "I really hope we don't have to do this for the next one…"

"We probably won't," Adder grunted as he stood up and cracked his back before helping Fox to his feet. "Spades, can you get a status report form the mechs?"

Amahk ran for an assault mech, the latter leaning down to communicate. After a few seconds, he replied, "Everything's good, but the other assault mech's rocket supplies are running low."

"Good," Adder nodded, "tell it to use them in moderation from now on. Alright, now all we need to focus on is setting up the nova bomb on the beam junction…which is…up there." Fox followed the serpent's pointed finger to see a series of beam intersecting in an asterisk shape. It was easily thirty feet off of the center of the floor, but it seemed to be unprotected.

"Okay, then," Fox went up to Amahk, "I don't think any of us can really reach that place without landing awkwardly. Do you mind getting the bomb offa my back and onto that junction?"

"Will do, sir," the human-machine hybrid confirmed as he removed the pack from the vulpine leader's back and began scampering up the middle beam. He easily reached the location, removed the bomb from its package with his lower arms, and stuck it onto the panel where the beams intersected and set it up before jumping back down.

"Good job," Fox complimented. "Now how far is the next one?"

"It's about a half-mile away," Haxin answered. "Like I said before, it's half the distance from where we started to this one. If we continue across the floor and into that hallway over there, we should get there. Dunno about the enemy resistance along the way, though."

"Well, let's just hope the enemy isn't too dug in this time," Adder spoke. "C'mon, let's get movin'."

Fox and the others made their way for the next beam junction, and of course, there was heavy resistance. Not only were there humans and Sentries, but also Epitomes of various sorts. In some cases, they had to employ perfectly-timed dodges to avoid getting fried by an Epitome of Voltage. Other times, giant flails were the objects of worry when Epitomes of Inferno were involved. Every patch of darkness was a cause of worry when Epitomes of Shadows came along. Liquid and metallic bodies rose from the ground as Epitomes of Water and Terrain joined the fray. Koteki also continued to become more of a common appearance, since they kept showing up every few minutes. Since the hallways were wide enough, spider tanks also became an increasing threat from their heavy DEB cannons. Even the occasional swarms of juvenile Plague showed up aside Hunters and shock troopers. As the battle inside the ridiculously large _Leviathan_ wore on, it seemed less of so and more like a recapitulation of all the battles with each and every enemy they had encountered in past skirmishes. After what seemed to be ages, the squad reached the corner leading to their destined beam junction.

"What do we have this time?" Fox asked Adder.

The serpent closed his eyes and flared his heat-sensing pits, looking through the wall separating them from their objective. Opening his eyes, he replied, "You're not going to like it. These guys are dug in…and when I mean dug in, I mean very much so. We've got blast shields set up with Koteki behind them…all armed with plasma weapons, meaning they can fire right through them and into us. Then there are the Epitomes of Inferno and Water- three and four respectively. Hunters are all over the place with their invisibility veil generators active. Lastly, we've got a beauuuutiful juggernaut tank. It's not armed with any main weapon since we're in such enclosed spaces, but there are still the PMG turrets to worry about. Our last plan's not gonna work here with all those plasma weapons around."

"Gotta love those odds," Haxin said sarcastically.

"Thankfully, we've got the mechs for that, correct, sir?" Amahk inquired.

"Exactly," Adder nodded. "We're going to have to heavily defend our mechs for this battle. They can handle everything except the juggernaut tank, but we need to protect them from the Epitomes…and the Hunters. Even though some are armed with those huge directed plasma beam cannons, they've definitely lost the penetrating characteristic. Which means nothing's safe against it."

"How do you know?" Fox questioned.

"Just look at our hover tanks. They've got plasma cannons, but they've been ionized for better anti-armor and anti-mech combat. Probably the same case here."

"Then all we have to do is protect the mechs from the Hunters and the Epitomes," Haxin spoke.

"Pretty much," Adder nodded, "That…and we're practically going to have to run straight through the entrance."

"What?!" Fox exclaimed, causing Adder to put a finger to his snout. Speaking quietly, the vulpine replied, "Are we _trying _to get killed here?"

"When I meant practically through the entrance," the serpent clarified, "I meant that we would enter through a…slightly different way."

"…Go on, I'm listening."

* * *

Outside of the hallway, a variety of Koteki, a couple dozen Hunters, seven Epitomes, and a juggernaut tank were waiting behind blast shields, preparing for the arrival of the Lylatians and their mechanized allies should they have survived to reach their location. Much time has passed, resulting in many of the hybrid soldiers slumping against their blast shields. Inside the juggernaut tanks, those manning the turrets were starting to kick back in their seats. That was when they heard an exclamation coming from the hallway. This caused everyone to snap to a ready position, weapons raised and trained on the hallway exit. Suddenly, a small canister flew out and landed just before the first blast shields, causing everyone to abandon cover and brace for an explosion. Instead a plume of smoke began billowing out of the can, which turned out to be a smoke grenade. This caused panic among the soldiers and Epitomes, causing the soldiers to fire blindly into the literal wall of smoke generated by the grenade. Plasma bolts zipped this way and that way, beams of directed plasma seared the air, and heavy chaingun sluggers laced the area. The physical manifestations of the elements charged in, the heavily-armored Epitomes of Inferno lumbering into the curtain and casting out their flails in random directions while the Epitomes of Water cautiously approached…and merely leapt back to their original position.

"Cease fire, you imbeciles!" one of the liquid enemies growled. "There's nobody there!"

The irritated soldiers cursed and growled at their hastiness…just as the wall to the side of the entryway crumbled down to reveal a melee mech. It plowed through the first few blast shields and trampled over those behind them. They were quickly followed by the assault mechs and their infantry support.

"Through the wall!" Fox exclaimed as he sought cover behind the rubble generated by the melee mech's tackle into the wall. "So simple!"

"Told you it would work," the serpent smirked. "Concentrate your fire on the Epitomes of Water, Fox- they can't withstand the high-temp lasers of your blaster!"

The vulpine quickly followed the order and trained his fire on the liquid entities. Though they attempted to dodge the shots, steam had quickly begun clouding the area as they were vanquished one by one. In the meantime, the mechs made quick work of the helpless Koteki with support from Haxin, Amahk, and Adder. After eliminating the Epitomes of Water, Fox assisted the rest of the squad in taking out the various Hunters scattered across the floor using the thermal setting for his helmet's HUD. As the smokescreen faded, blood, corpses, and severed limbs (courtesy of Fox's assault blaster and the Spades' arms) lay strewn all over the floor.

After the Koteki, Hunters, and Epitomes of Water were taken care of, the real challenges remained- the juggernaut tank, whose turrets were constantly spraying the allied soldiers and mechs with plasma fire, and the Epitomes of Inferno. For the latter, most of their armor had been blown off, transforming them into their more agile, winged forms.

"Great, so how do we take out these guys?" Fox asked, or rather yelled, over the electrical zaps of the plasma machine gun turrets.

"I can handle that!" Adder screamed back. "The only problems are the Epitomes of Inferno! The only way to neutralize them is to extinguish them!"

"And how the hell do we do that?"

At that moment, the melee mech trampled over an Epitome of Inferno and began stomping it. As it did so, the flames slowly died, leaving behind nothing but ashes.

"Smothering them seems to work fine, sir!" Amahk yelled. Getting the idea, the other mechs worked to do the same, while Fox, Adder, and the Spades did their best to evade fire from the turrets of the juggernaut tank by getting underneath it. Finally, the last of the Epitomes had been defeated.

"So…you said you could take the tank out?" Fox raised an eyebrow. "We can't exactly do much underneath it."

"I'm working on it, I'm working on it!" Adder retorted. Suddenly, a loud, metallic groan filled their ears, causing everyone to look upwards. To their dismay, the juggernaut tank was lowering its main body in an attempt to crush the Lylatians and Spades taking refuge beneath it.

"Shit!" Haxin cursed. "Get out of the way!"

Needing no encouragement, the soldiers leapt to the side to avoid the crushing bulk of the main body just as it slammed into the ground. This allowed the machine gunners inside to train their fire on the recovering mercenaries and their squadmates.

"Got it!" Adder cried, then leapt for Fox and forcefully took his assault blaster while exchanging his shotgun for his Desert Eagle Mk. VII. Following the surprised cry from the vulpine, he leapt for a plasma machine gun and shoved the barrel downwards. The crack of the operator's jaw caused by the sudden rise of the stock was barely audible over the zaps of nearby PMGs, which now stopped as they realized the mistake of lowering the juggernaut to ground level and quickly tried to lift the tank back to its feet. They were unsuccessful as Adder leapt inside.

After the initial shouts of fear, the sounds that followed were the steady explosions of the serpent's magnum repeater, the searing noise that resulted from the high-powered lasers zipping through the air, and the cries of pain from the ones inside getting massacred. Fox, the Spades, and the mechs waited outside, cringing slightly as a sickening crack occurred every so often. A few humans tried to escape through the turret windows, only to be hit in the back by a .50 AE slug or bisected by the assault blaster, the front half toppling to the ground and spraying blood and guts everywhere. After a few more seconds, the juggernaut tank had stopped moving upwards, and the cries and shots had ceased. A moment later, a blood-covered Adder kicked a PMG out of his way and leapt to the ground, landing in a crouch.

"I'm really surprised that there were few humans in there armed with a firearm," Adder shrugged as if nothing had happened. "Usually a trench knife, but not many firearms."

"…How long have you been in active duty again?" Fox stared.

"A little longer than you've lived. Well, this tank should make a perfect platform for placing the nova bomb at the beam junction. Amahk, you're up."

"Yes, sir!" the Spade acknowledged. Adder turned around to let him remove the highly destructive explosive from his pack and clambered up a leg of the downed tank to the top of the main body. From there, he made a short jump to the beam junction, planted the bomb, and set it up.

"Phew," Fox breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's out of the way. Now all we have to do is find Iradanus."

"According to the last comm feeds," Haxin said, "I would assume he's in the bridge…several hundred miles away…"

"I think we're going to need a lot longer than a half-hour to reach the bridge with the transit system in this area shut down," Adder sighed before putting a hand to his helmet to activate the radio. "Everyone, this is Adder. Our squad's just got finished with our beam junctions. No casualties. Status report."

The replies were:

"Wolf- We're good here. Brutus is setting up that last nova bomb as we speak."

"Aloysius here. We're done. Field Master Xamuros has a minor injury due to…you guessed it…a fall."

"Marcus and Panther. We're just mopping up the rest of the enemy forces at our last beam junction. One heavy weapons mech casualty."

"This is Krystal. Ace and I are finished. No casualties on our side."

"Leon, finishing up the job with Tallon. Minor injuries to our Spades and mechs from an EMP grenade."

The last caused everyone to turn up their volume-"Cris reporting in! We're attempting to clear the area of our last beam junction, but we've got a freakin' Harvester here, and we're pinned do- Falco, what the hell are you doing?! Sidearms aren't gonna help- We've taken two casualties, and we're gonna take more if we don't get any help! Dammit, get outta there!" An explosion resulted in momentary static.

"Alright, we're coming for you," Adder spoke. "Uh, I mean, you guys. Activate your emergency beacon and we'll head over there to help."

"Gotcha!" Cris yelled in reply. "Activating beacon now! Can't talk after this! We just lost a mech!"

In the upper right corner of Fox's HUD, a red light flashed and an arrow appeared, indicating that Falco, Cris, and their surviving squadmates were two miles away.

"Okay, everyone," the serpent leader began, "we gotta help those guys out of this mess. We've got a fix on her at around two miles away. Anyone else?"

"Two-and-a-half," Krystal replied. "I think our squads are the closest."

"Then let's all make way for her location. Let's move out, everyone."

Fox and the rest of the squad immediately began heading for the arrow indicating Cris's current position. Thankfully, since most of the humans in the sector had been wiped out, it took only about ten minutes of travel via mounted Longsword to get to the junction into the beam junction Cris's and Falco's squad was supposed to take out. Shortly after reaching it, an assault mech was thrown into the bulkheads in front of them, leaving a slight impression as it fell lifeless to the ground. Taking the sight as an indication to approach with caution, the squad rounded the corner…and there, indeed, was a monstrous Harvester.

Cris, Falco, and the single surviving Spade were doing their best to seek cover from the onslaught of the behemoth, which was actually so large that it could only lean out of the hallway of the other side because it would otherwise take up the entire platform. Fox, Adder, and the rest of the squad immediately began opening fire to divert the mobile siphoning facility's attention. Of course, due to the incredibly thick armor, none of the projectiles did a thing. It merely responded by lifting one of its pincers into the air and making a downwards strike at Fox, who attempted to dodge, but was blown sideways by the force of the blow. He rolled over just in time as the Harvester swiped the arm sideways, barely nicking off part of his helmet.

"Adder, we're gonna need to do a lot better than this if we don't want to end up being the ones that have to be saved!" Fox yelled as he shot an incoming siphoning tentacle to prevent it from latching onto him.

"I'm aware of that!" the serpent retorted.

"Hey, we're the ones who're pinned over here!" Falco shouted. "Don't you think a little help would be- SHIT!"

The Harvester made a horizontal slash with its other pincer. Falco barely dropped prone in time to dodge, but Cris was snatched up by the open claw. The cursing vixen was quickly having the life crushed out of her as it began slowly clenching the two halves of its weapon together…

"CRIS!" Adder screamed. "NO!"

The enraged serpent, leapt into the air towards the Harvester's arm, brandishing a strange weapon out of seemingly nowhere. The ebony-colored weapon resembled a two-sided scepter, which was about five feet tall. It featured hooked blades, both about two feet in length, on either end and both were curved in opposite directions. Raising the weapon over his head, he descended with a two-handed strike with the weapon, slashing straight through the arm and letting Cris fall safely (though somewhat painfully) to the ground.

The machine, letting a surprised gasp as it watched its arm somehow get severed from its body by a simple melee weapon, slashed its other arm at Adder, who pushed off of the top with his left mechanical arm and landed in a crouch. He quickly recovered from the landing and leapt into the air again, throwing his weapon towards the beasts head. It cleanly pierced through the other side, and Adder caught the weapon while it was exiting through the other side. Realizing the mech was still functioning, he quickly returned with a quick series of strikes, twirling the weapon elegantly with his hand while doing so and ended with a final stab that decapitated the Harvester's head from its neck, leaving the rest of the body to fall limp.

Adder rose slowly, breathing heavily from fatigue. He glanced sideways to notice that everyone else was staring at him. Fox, Falco, Cris, the three Spades, and even the mechs had been standing where they were and had watched the serpent the entire time.

For a few seconds, Adder stared back at everyone before realizing, "…Oh! Um…Ah…You guys…saw the entire thing?" The others slowly nodded simultaneously. "…Well, then! If you'll just divert your attention away from me…"

"Adder," Fox began, "first of all, you produced that weapon you're holding from thin air, and then you sliced right through the Harvester's arm. After that you, chucked it through its head, caught it as it was coming out the other side, and then beat the crap that was left out of the Harvester. DO YOU THINK WE CAN DIVERT OUR ATTENTION AWAY FROM YOU RIGHT NOW?!"

"Okay…," the serpent flashed his eyes from left to right before pointing. "Wait, over there! A distraction!"

Everyone else dumbly looked to where Adder was pointing, realized the stupidity of the action, then glared back at him. He stood there, shotgun in hand with the scepter nowhere to be seen.

"Wha-?" Haxin tilted his head sideways. "Where'd your weapon go, sir?"

Adder looked down at his shotgun, looked back and replied, "Right here. I'm holding it."

"Aw, don't give us that bull!" Falco cried. "Where'd that staff… stick… scepter… thing…go?! Where'd you hide it?"

"What 'thing'?" he asked in reply.

"Oh…I get it…," Fox sighed. "Fine. We'll keep quiet about it."

"Very good, Fox," Adder cracked a smile. "Now all we have to do is wait for everyone else to arrive…"

"Uh, guys? Aren't you forgetting someone? Namely _me_?!"

The group turned to notice that Cris was still trapped by the closed pincer of the Harvester's severed arm. Adder grimaced at his lack of awareness and opened the claws with a grunt.

"Eh…," Cris looked down, "thanks for…y'know…saving me again."

"It is what comrades do, is it not, Cris?" Adder replied, looking away to hide his bashfulness.

"Well, you have my name down, but we still gotta fix that whole 'formal' thing. C'mon, you can loosen up!"

"Um…well…"

"Whoaly shit!" came a cry from behind the group. Fox looked backwards to see Ace and Krystal, the former of which had spoken. Their squad also followed- two Spade soldiers and two melee mechs.

"…I guess you guys were able to handle the problem without me, then," Krystal scratched the back of her helmet.

"Aw, you guys stole all the fun!" Ace whined. "I mean, sure everyone would be in danger then, but at least save some for me! You're just like Krystal, brutalizing every freakin' enemy before I get to do anything…"

"I thought this was the battle that decided the fate of the Lylat System, not a game," Krystal raised an eyebrow.

"Well…yeah, but still… I need something to do too, y'know. I don't want to be dead weight or anything."

"The point is," Fox walked up to Krystal and put a hand on her shoulder, "that you're both alright. Everything _is_ alright, correct?"

"Yes, Fox," his wife nodded. "We're fine here."

"Oh…my…gods…," Wolf gaped at the wreckage of the Harvester. "What the hell didya do to the thing, Krystal?!"

"Hey, it wasn't me," the vixen answered. "It was Fox's group. If it were me, there wouldn't be much wreckage left of it."

This process repeated as the rest of the members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, Star Wolf, and Division-Z arrived. The initial surprise and bewilderment died down as time passed as the soldiers waited for the last of their comrades to arrive. Finally, Aloysius and Xamuros sprinted around the corner with their squadmates behind them.

"Alright, so everyone's here," Ace nodded. "Now we've got our secondary objective to complete- locate and capture Iradanus. Common sense would tell us he'd be at the bridge. Knowing Iradanus tells me, however, he's probably laid a trap by now or he's not there. Or both."

"Krystal, you can't use telepathy inside the _Leviathan_ can you?" Fox asked.

"No," she replied. "I'm able to use all acquired forms of kinesis, but something is barring me from using telepathy as a means of communication and obtaining information."

"Well, then," Panther sighed. "Our only possibility for Iradanus' location would be the bridge."

"Like I said, though," Ace stated, "he's probably laid a trap there or he's not there, probably a combination of the two. We need to think…Where would Iradanus be, knowing him?"

"I'd say it's the place where we'd least expect to find him," Xamuros replied. "That is, within the boundaries of this ship."

"Well, bridge's out of the question, then," Marcus said. "It'd be way too obvious."

"There's the bow of the ship," Tallon suggested, "but we'd have noticed if he'd come by, especially since this section of the transport grid is shut down."

"It needs to be something in the vicinity of the bridge, but not anywhere to obvious…" Leon thought aloud. "There's the stern of the ship, engines and all."

"But Iradanus wouldn't leave himself trapped in a corner," Cris spoke. "He'd need a place that has a variety of escape pathways."

"Then he could be anywhere between here, the bridge, and the stern," Falco rolled his eyes. "C'mon, people, we're not getting anywhere fast and we're burning time! That black hole's still out there, y'know!"

"We know that, Falco," Aloysius growled. "We're doing our best here! …Let's see…we need a place that's between here, the bridge, and the stern. It needs to be in the nearby area of the bridge as well. It can't be too obvious- in fact it should be a place where we'd least expect him to be. It also needs various means of escape. There's also the need for an area large enough to lay a trap, have tons of bodyguards, or possibly and probably both. Knowing him, he'd at least want some Honor Guard mechs and maybe a Harvester and the area should have a lotta cover lying around."

"But what would that leave us?" Brutus asked. "We don't have many options with that kind of outlook."

"…What about a recreation room?" Fox spoke.

"Fox, you're a GENIUS!!!" Ace smiled. "None of us- except you, of course- could have thought that up, so it's almost completely the last place we'd expect him to be!"

"Yeah!" Wolf agreed. "A rec area for a ship this size- even if there's more than one- has gotta be huge! That means it's probably large enough to mount a defensive trap, it's got ton of cover that can be improvised, it's easily accessible from many entrances, so there's also many means of escape; and there's gotta be one in the vicinity of the bridge!"

"Y'know guys, I think we're forgetting something," Xamuros spoke.

"What?" Panther shot back. "Isn't enough that we've come up with Iradanus' location?"

"No, it's just that no one's remembered that we haven't planted a nova bomb on this beam junction yet."

All eyes and photoreceptors fell on Cris, who looked at everyone before realizing, "Oh! Eh…sorry 'bout that…I'll get right to that!"

"We'll get on our way in the meantime," Adder spoke. "Let's get going, but move slowly enough so that Cris's squad can catch up."

"Okay, I think I got the location on my PDA," Ace said. "Follow me, and keep a sharp lookout for anything that could kill us!"

As the rest of the team made way for the recreation room, Falco shot an angry look at Cris, "What, it's_ your_ squad now?"

The vixen shrugged a reply and cracked a smile as she continued her climb towards the beam junction.

* * *

"Why won't you die, you friggin' son of a bitch?!" Oikonny screamed as he let loose another burst of directed energy from his heavy DEB cannon at the Epitome of Light. Again, it wailed from getting seared by the high-powered beam before getting pushed into the energy railing of the transit system and was dispersed into light particles again.

"Dammit, you bastards have better set up those nova bombs by now!" the simian yelled in the other Lylatians' direction. A strange gurgling sound caught his attention, and he swung his HDEB cannon towards the wall.

There the very material form of the bulkhead seemed to be rippling like the surface of a pond having a pebble tossed into it. From there emerged a strange, tentacle-limbed entity that floated a few inches off of the ground.

"The hell?" Oikonny whispered to himself. The creature seemed to take notice of this and opened its single, bulbous eye. The ape was unmoved and instead fired the beam at it. Clearly surprised, it dodged the beam before going through the floor, which rippled like the wall before.

Oikonny swung the cannon around, looking for the strange being that infiltrated the ship. It was nowhere to be found, and he could tell that it was quite enraged at being shot at.

"I can't die…," the ape repeated to himself. "Nothing to fear. I can't die. It's just some weird-ass creature that can move through solid objects."

[_This "weird-ass creature" is going to kill you_,] a voice echoed in his head.

Suddenly, it leapt out from the rippling floor behind him, causing Oikonny to wheel around in surprise and fired at it. The entity responded by looping over the beam and dashing at him. It knocked the HDEB cannon out of Oikonny's hands and wrapped its tentacles around him as he cried in fright. It then carried him over to the bulkhead of the inner hull, where they both passed through the surface as if it were nonexistent.

Reaching the outer hull- the last boundary separating them from the vacuum of space, the same rasping voice in his head echoed, [_May the Æthereal Plain judge you well._] With that, it tossed Oikonny through the wall of the Gargantuan, where he was immediately drawn towards the black hole generated by the seven colossal ships.

Despite what many believe, black holes are actually invisible to the naked eye, considering that not even light can escape its gravitational pull. However, particles that were being sucked into the black hole's center- the singularity- were heating up due to the friction, causing a visible spiral to appear. Struggle as he might, the ape was helpless as he was drawn into the black hole, cursing his lack of the need of air. It would have been preferable to have been killed by suffocation rather than by the black hole. The ape was soon drawn into the lethal range of the black hole and began spiraling towards the center. If it weren't for the fact that space was a vacuum, one could have heard Oikonny scream his death cry as his atomic form was elongated to the point where his body was vaporized and sucked into the black hole. It had claimed its first victim.

[_I am inside the _Leviathan_, Master Chronicus._]

[_Excellent work, Infiltrator. Now obtain that information._]

[_As wished, my master_.]

As the Infiltrator passed through the floor above in search of its objective, the light particles dancing around the area intensified in glow and began recollecting into a humanoid shape. The Epitome of Light was very, very angry.

* * *

"Hey, I think Cris and Falco are catching up with us," Fox told the rest of the allied soldiers and mechs.

"Great," Adder nodded. "Do you mind filling them in?"

As the lagging squad fell in pace with the small regiment of troops, Fox explained, "Alright, Ace was able to find the exact location of the recreation room. It's due about five more minutes of jogging at this pace to reach it. Cross-level your ammo if you need to, get those grenades ready to throw, and be prepared for anything to happen."

"Heh, like anything's changed, huh, Fox?" Falco smirked.

"Okay, everyone," Ace began, "I'm going to start the timer in a few seconds. Once we capture, kill, or fail to capture or kill Iradanus, we've got to get back to the hangar and our ships as fast as you can fucking can. If you can't, at least stand near a nova bomb to give yourself a quick death! Hee hee hee! …Why isn't anyone else laughing?"

"Because we don't exactly find death funny," Marcus replied.

"Okay, point is that I'm going to set the timer at thirty minutes…right…now!"

Fox's visor suddenly began flashing red as a time display appeared in large, bold print- 30:00:00. As the visor stopped flashing and the numbers shrunk and moved into an unoccupied corner of his HUD, the time started winding down.

"Let's pick up the pace, everyone!" Adder ordered. "The United Lylat System Spatial Defense Force can't hold on much longer!"

With that Fox and everyone else doubled their speed. As they hurried down the hallway, though, they noticed that everything was eerily quiet…and empty. Fox quickly switched to thermal setting. Nothing.

"Adder, do you see anything?" the vulpine asked.

"No," he responded. "That's what worries me. Keep your eyes open, everyone. We all know Iradanus."

Before long, the group had reached the entrance to the recreation room without encountering any resistance. The soldiers and mechs began taking sides on either side of the door.

"Yeah, they're definitely in there," Ace confirmed, his eyes closed and heat-sensing pits active. "We've got tons of guys in cover, six Hunters with DPB cannons and energy shields, uh…twelve shock troopers, two Honor Guard mechs, four human commandos, and…hoooooo, boy…a Harvester. Well, shit! They're aiming at us too! They can see us!"

"They've got thermal visors, then," Fox spoke, and grinned. "I have an idea. First off, I need a flashbang grenade and a splitter. And Krystal…I need to ask you a favor…"

* * *

Inside, Iradanus was waiting anxiously. It seemed like the Lylatians had wizened up and decided not to fall for the bridge decoy, since some soldiers said they had reported a few dozen heat signatures on the other side of the wall. They were going to attempt to take his life or capture him, and he knew this was going to be very, very close. He turned to face his Honor Guard mechs, which were given a distinct, black color due to the fact that they were _his_ bodyguards.

"It's time for me to leave," he spoke. "Honor Guards, accompany me."

The human leader was only able to turn his back when the door opened slightly and a cylinder was chucked through.

"Shit!" a soldier cursed. "Flashb-"

The rest was lost as an extremely bright flash of light occurred, blinding all who looked directly at it, and a deafening explosion occurred, reducing the dictator's hearing to nothing more than a dull whine. Instinctively, the Honor Guard mechs moved around either side of Iradanus and closed their arms in a protective wall. It was fortunate that they did so, since a splitter grenade was then tossed in shortly after. The grenade's first stage detonation went off, showering the area with metal shrapnel, which then entered the second, third, fourth stages and on. As Iradanus' hearing was returning, he could hear death cries fill the air by those unfortunate to have been pierced by the shrapnel. As the series of explosions reached their close, Iradanus and the honor guards were already making way for the exit at a quick pace when-

"We've lost visual on the enemy!" a soldier reported. "The heat signatures are gone; I repeat the heat signatures are-"

Suddenly, portions of the wall nearby the door crumbled down to reveal the Lylatians, Spades, and mechs rushing into the room. As they entered and began eliminating human soldiers and the biogenetically-altered troops, it was then noticed why their heat signatures had disappeared- they were each covered in a thick layer of ice.

"Krystal, take out that Harvester!" Fox ordered. "Panther, get that RFSS-PMG going! Everyone else, keep doing what you're doing!"

His vixen wife's free hand already had a brownish aura surround it as she clenched it into a fist. The Harvester, in turn, buckled slightly and let out a surprised gasp as it was suddenly crunched inwards. The stress caused a gigantic explosion to rip the mech apart, along with everyone else nearby. Meanwhile, Panther had started up his Rapid-Fire Scatter-Shot plasma machine gun and let loose a stream of plasma bolts in random directions, felling shock troopers, humans, and some Hunters.

"Fox!" Wolf yelled. "Iradanus is getting away! We're covering you!"

The vulpine leader immediately began dashing through the crossfire, which began chipping off large chunks of the ice armor Krystal had enveloped him in. The Honor Guards and Iradanus saw this and began running even faster, with the mechs training their fire on him. Directed energy bolts and particle beams were streaking at him, tearing off the rest of his ice armor as he began firing towards Iradanus. The mechs blocked each shot of his assault blaster as they neared the room's exit.

"FOX!" Adder yelled over the clamor of battle. "CHARGE UP YOUR BLASTER AND TAKE THE SHOT! DO IT QUICKLY!"

Fox held down the trigger of his blaster, and a sphere of pure laser energy began forming around the barrel. He quickly calculated the parabolic trajectory…and fired. Time seemed to slow as the projectile streaked towards Iradanus, who was heading through a huge hole caused by one of his Honor Guard for their escape. The second Honor Guard attempted to leap at the projectile and block it, but it was torn apart by Krystal's terrakinesis, leaving the projectile to impact the ground just as Iradanus rounded the corner… Time resumed its pace as the explosion occurred. The faint sound of Iradanus's surprised cry was barely- barely- audible. The vulpine was able to let out a sigh of relief.

"No time to confirm his death!" Ace shouted. "Everyone, drop what you're doing and get the fuck outta this Gargantuan!"

Fox immediately turned tail and ran towards the direction of the hangar, as did everyone else. The humans, also aware of the danger, also began running towards the escape pods. As the Lylatians and their allies reached the outside, the Spades began changing into their Longsword forms and received their share of mounts.

"Commander McCloud!" Haxin shouted as he began the transformation. "Commander McBannon! Get on me! Amahk, follow behind! Amahk!" The other Spade was mounted by Aloysius and headed off without them. "Damn…Bah, whatever works! Hold on tight!" Fox and Adder mounted Haxin and the hovercraft sped off. As they sped off through the hallways, they began breaking off chunks of their ice armor to lighten the weight.

"Shoot, I'm almost out of a laser charge on this one!" Fox realized as he checked his assault blaster.

"How much is left?" Adder asked.

"Point nine percent! Fuck, I should've picked up another weapon!"

"That's the least of our worries, Fox! Notice the timer!"

The vulpine's eyes shifted to the top-left corner of his HUD. The timer read 24:36:97. _Okay, okay…_, he thought calmly. _We've got plenty of time. With Haxin, we can reach the hanger in about five minutes…it's okay…Everything's going fine._ Suddenly, the wall to the left burst open as an Honor Guard broke through. _Not fine, not fine, not fine, not fine!_

"Get down!" Adder yelled as he leaned backwards. As they passed under the mech, time slowed down as the serpent yanked Fox down with him, causing one of the machine's ax's blade miss to him by mere inches. Time resumed its pace as the two sat back up and took notice of the Honor Guard mech lumbering after them.

"This has got to be the _worst_ time for that to happen!" Fox cried.

"Save your shots!" his companion advised. "We can't do anything about it! Haxin, pleeeeaaaase tell me you're good at evasive maneuvers!"

"I was able to make it to this Gargantuan just fine in Longsword mode, sir," the Spade replied. "An Honor Guard mech can't be too bad."

"You're carrying two passengers who'd rather not get killed. These passengers also prevent you from using barrel rolls to deflect enemy fire."

"Well…that makes things a little more complicated… Just hold on!"

Haxin began swerving wildly as DE bolts sped past him, and though Fox could handle flying an arwing or driving and Landmaster just fine, he couldn't help but feel queasy with the sudden jerks, brakes, and boosts. For about thirty seconds, the mech continued to bombard from behind, but it was slowly fading into the distance.

"See?" Adder spoke. "You did alright!"

"Urgh…," Fox grumbled, "easy for you to say…"

"Thanks, sir," Haxin sighed, "but what I'm wondering is why the mech isn't using its particle-"

Suddenly, a purplish beam of energy flashed overhead and was aiming at the ceiling forward of them. Realizing what was going to happen. Fox looked back to Adder, who simultaneously nodded.

"Haxin, head on without us," Fox ordered. "We're can't all escape the explosion together."

"But, sir," he opposed, "my priorities are to-"

"Shut up about your priorities!" Adder yelled. "Boost now!"

With that Fox and Adder tumbled off of the Longsword as it screamed forward. Just then, the particle beam intensified, causing a gigantic explosion that caused the ceiling to collapse in front of them and behind the Spade. If they had still been on, they would've been crushed under the debris, which now piled high and prevented the vulpine and serpent to progress further in that direction.

"Where's the junction?!" Fox exclaimed. "We need a junction to get outta here before that Honor Guard gets us!" The two began scanning the hallway for an escape route and found one…fifty yards away.

With no need for an order, the two began sprinting as fast as they could towards the junction, adrenaline pumping through their bodies as the Honor Guard mech's angry moan filled the air. As the mech came into view, the two dashed around the corner and into a narrow passageway with a steel door, which Adder easily kicked off of its hinges, and they dashed inside. The two caught their breath around another corner, heaving heavily and bent over with their hands on their knees. Fox shot a glance at the timer. 19:58:83.

"Once this…is over…," Fox gasped in between breaths, "I'm going to sleep…for a whole day straight…"

"Yeah…sure…if we live…," Adder breathed heavily.

"We'll be fine," the red-furred vulpine spoke, now with his breathing rate stabilizing.

"We've lasted this far into the war, we'll get out alive."

"Sorry…just tired," Adder looked away. "Not thinking…straight. Come on, let's get moving."

Fox followed the pit viper-cobra down the small corridor. He kept his assault blaster raised and was alert for threats. Adder was in a similar state, his pump-action shotgun ready at his chest.

"Adder…," the vulpine spoke.

"Yeah?" the veteran asked in reply. "What is it?"

"Can you at least tell me what that weapon you had back there was?"

"Fox, I'd rather not right now," he shook his head. "I trust you. I trust you as much as I trust Brutus and Ace, but…Maybe sometime later, okay? Let's just focus on what we've got to deal with." The two came across a sturdy blast door. "Okay, I think this leads back into the hallway we were just in. Stand back."

Fox gave Adder some space as he began kicking the door repeatedly. As he raised his leg to kick another time, the door suddenly opened to reveal a commando with a chain-shotgun ready. The serpent's eyes widened in surprise and he tried to dodge, but having a leg raised put him in an awkward position…leaving the human to blow off his right leg and pockmark him with bullets…

* * *

Author's Notes- Well, due to a series of unfortunate events that include the hacking of the main forum I posted my literary works at, just became my main site. Graaah...

Anyways, this 3rd part turned out to be another disappointment for me. I was still a little rusty due to the fact that during this time, I had just gotten out of a near year-long hiatus and tried to wrap this up. I blame the fall of NSider.

Still, this chapter did have some high points. I'll leave the reader to those. Until then, please read and review. Constructive, advanced critique is encouraged and appreciated.


	34. Chapter 16, Part 4: Farewell

Chapter 16, Part 4: Farewell

"ADDER!" Fox screamed as the serpent fell. "NO!" The vulpine roared with rage as he unloaded his assault blaster into the human commando. Unfortunately, the only feat he accomplished was setting fire to the biologically enhanced trooper's cloak, not affecting the thick armor underneath. He gave a small huff as he pumped a three soda can-sized shells from his chain-shotgun, which rotated the barrels and readied the next shots. Seeing this, Fox fired his last remaining assault blaster shots into the weapon, effectively shearing it into pieces.

"Dammit, you bloody Lylatian!" the commando cursed as he chucked away the useless weapon and drew a trench knife, dashing towards Fox with the blade ready.

"Aw, shit!" the vulpine growled as he blocked the stab with his assault blaster, which effectively ruined the weapon but embedded the knife inside of it. He then twisted the blaster, causing the human to loose his grip on his knife, allowing Fox to swing his useless weapon to bludgeon the commando.

Unfortunately, the armor of the enemy soldier was stronger than Fox had anticipated, and the blaster broke apart in his hands, leaving him to stare wide-eyed at what was little more than a twisted trigger grip. The commando seemed to stare blankly at him before sending him eight feet away with a single punch. Though the shields had absorbed the impact, the readings on his HUD were starting to glow red. As Fox was struggling to his feet, the commando walked up to him and kicked him in the gut, effectively shorting out the shield system with a flash of light that momentarily stunned the trooper.

Fox attempted to take advantage of this by trying to tackle the trooper, but he had recovered quickly, sidestepped Fox, and pushed him into the ground. As the vulpine panted for breath, he shot a glance at the timer- 17:33:21. He didn't have much time left, and he was getting the crap beaten out of him by a human commando.

Suddenly, Fox was lifted up off his feet and thrown into the bulkhead, resulting in a dull ache. He looked to see the commando run up to him and punch him in the helmet, resulting in a spider web of cracks on his visor and slight head trauma as his head snapped backwards and the malfunctioning of the bars and gauges on the HUD. Even with the ruined visor, Fox was still able to notice as the commando shoved and pinned him against the bulkhead.

"You will die like a dog, you little fucker," the commando growled. Fox weakly raised a hand and closed his eyes in a pitiful attempt protect himself as the human raised a hand to punch. _Krystal…Marcus…Tallon…,_ he thought solemnly. _I'm sorry I won't be making it out alive…_ He could already hear the human thrust his fist forward…but instead of his skull getting smashed, he heard a different sound- grunting and a hissing sound. The vulpine leader opened his eyes to realize the reason for the noises. A double-bladed energy scythe had pierced through the commando's armor, through his chest, and an inch out the other side. The hissing energy weapon was slowly sliding down the human, who made a last grunt and gurgle before falling dead to the ground, allowing Fox to slump down against the bulkhead. Removing his broken helmet, he breathed heavily for a few seconds, before looking up to Adder, whose left mechanical arm was raised. He had mustered enough strength to throw his energy scythe through the commando…and had saved his life.

"Heh," the serpent smiled weakly and let his head drop down to the floor, "even after all this time… ugh…I still kept my promise to you, James…"

"Adder!" Fox gasped as he clumsily ran up to the serpent's side and fell to his knees. "God, you're still alive!"

"Of course I'm alive," Adder replied. Each breath was extremely labored. "I managed to dodge most…of the bullets from that commando…agh! Nevertheless, this is still…the most pain I've…been in for a really long time! Uh…damnit…"

"Okay, I'm going to help you out of here!" the vulpine leader began trying to lift his fallen comrade up. "C'mon, I can't do this by myself! C'mon, Adder, push yourself! …A…Adder?" He gaped in disbelief. The snake wasn't even trying to help. "Adder…you aren't…"

"Just…leave me here, Fox…," Adder wheezed. "Even if you tried to help me escape, we'd be easy pickings for any hostile on the way and you'd be wasting precious time…If you somehow managed to even get us to the hangar safely and with enough time, we certainly can't share a fighter and I'm in no condition to…ah…fly by myself…"

"B-but…," Fox continued to stare him. Adder's blood was visible through the bullet holes in his body, and his right mechanical leg had been blown off. There was no way they could reach the hangar in time. "I-I can't just leave you here! I don't want to leave you here, Adder! I can't let you die like this! There has to- there must be a way to-"

"Fox…Fox, stop!" the pit viper-cobra hybrid held up a weak hand. "There's no way… I've…done my part… I've fought my battles, I've worked to protect our race…and I've protected you up to this point. I've helped undo the reputation my kind has received, and I've…worked to improve their future. My work…is done."

"B-but…"

"And stop stuttering like that," Adder rolled his eyes, almost as if humorously. "Leave me here and…get the hell off of this ship. Don't be…like your father, Fox. Don't sacrifice yourself when it's not necessary. He…gave his life to protect mine…and I don't need you to do the same when there's no hope. You only have a little over fifteen minutes now… Go. That's an order."

"But what about…Cris?" Fox asked. "What about Cris?"

"Does everyone know about it or something?" the hybrid snake laughed. "There's nothing I can…do about it now, Fox. Far too late…And why are you still here?! Get going before I'm not the only one who dies!"

"But I don't want to…," Fox swallowed hard and spoke reluctantly and shakily. "…I…I'll do it. Adder…I'll never forget you…"

"Aw, spare me the drama, will ya?" the serpent smiled. "Here. Take my weapons." He offered Fox his shotgun. The vulpine reached towards it, but hesitated. "Look, I won't exactly need them. I know you're a little inexperienced with a boomstick like this, but you'll need a firearm." Gathering strength, Fox accepted the shotgun, his Desert Eagle Mk. VII, the shotgun shell bandoliers, and the Deagle's magazine pack.

"Thank you, Adder," Fox managed to grin slightly through glassy eyes. "Thank you for everything…"

"Be strong, Fox," Adder spoke softly. "And if you somehow manage to loose my father's shotgun, I swear I will haunt you for the rest of your life."

Fox chuckled at the words, then said, "I won't…Rest easy, Adder. Farewell." The vulpine slowly began to walk away from the fallen soldier…No, to Fox, "soldier" didn't define him enough. Adder had been a comrade, a brother in arms…and most importantly, a friend to him and his father. Fox's walk slowly gained in pace until it became a run as he bolted towards the hangar of the _Leviathan_. He did his best to exaggerate his movements slightly to restore his lost energy shielding.

The vulpine leader was surprised by how light the shotgun was. He had expected the weapon to be much heavier due to its deadly stopping power, but the fact that he was holding it in his arms proved otherwise. He wasn't weight down much at all by the weapons and ammunition; it almost felt natural. After brisk running, he came across a group of three humans rounding a junction. The unexpected meeting caught them all off guard, stunning them for a couple of seconds.

Fox was the first to react, aiming down the sight, leveling it with the closest soldier's chest, and firing. Despite being lighter than what he had expected, the kickback was still enormous, causing the rifle to go up to an almost vertical angle. The devastating power of the weapon was just as pronounced, as the chest of the human literally burst apart as she gave her death cry. Not swayed, he pumped out the spent shell and moved to the next, firing a shell at his head, causing it to burst like an over-ripe tomato. The last one turned a ghostly pale and ran away in the opposite direction. Fox rounded the junction and leveled the sights of the shotgun at the fleeing enemy…but hesitated. _I shouldn't waste my time,_ he thought. _Getting out here alive is my first priority_.

With that, the orange-furred vulpine continued heading forward, running as fast as he could. Without a Longsword to mount, he was in a race against time, so he quickened his run further, dropping into a sprint. Mucus began building up in his throat and spat it out on the floor as he dashed, thankful that he had removed his helmet. His sides and calf muscles were starting to burn, but he just kept pushing it until he reached the platform where they had ridden the elevators. He paused to catch his breath and checked his surroundings. Yes…it was the place, but strangely, there was no sight of the white-furred simian. What Fox found more disturbing is that if the Epitome of Light had been disrupted, there should have been floating particles of light in the air. They were nowhere to be seen.

The sour taste of panic rose in Fox's throat, causing him to swallow hard. He scanned the row of elevators to check if they were active. A standby screen informed him that they were. _Iradanus is a dictator_, he thought. _but at least he knows when to restore power to a transportation grid for his troops._ He quickly tapped the screen and inputted the command to descend two floors, causing the elevator to begin dropping down at a good clip. Once he reached the bottom, his muzzle cracked into a smile as he saw the hangar doors lying wide-open in front of him. He could tell, though, that he was the last Lylatian that was going to get off of the ship, since his Arwing III was the only fighter remaining. Hope rising within him, he took off as soon as the elevator touched down…and heard a heavy thud and hiss behind him, causing a small tremor. The vulpine's smile quickly disappeared, and he turned around…to lay his eyes on the Epitome of Light.

"Ohhh, shit," the vulpine cursed. He started to back away, but glanced behind him to see his fighter. Trying to run wasn't an option. The Epitome of Light would easily kill him, and if it didn't, it might destroy his only means of escape- his Arwing III. He was going to have to engage and somehow disrupt the being of light particles long enough for him to prepare his fighter and escape. The catch- he had no weapon that could easily do so. If things weren't hard enough as is, he was _timed_.

The sentient, humanoid aurora let out a wail as it charged for Fox, who quickly rolled out of the way and fired a shotgun shell into its back as it was facing away from him. The only accomplished feat in doing so was enraging the Epitome further as it held out its hands and fired two beams of light energy towards him. Again, the vulpine rolled, dodging the beams. However, the Epitome had begun generating two more light beams, and as he was recovering from his roll, he was an easy target.

Though the energy shielding was able to deflect both beams of energy, the system overheated and shorted out, leaving Fox defenseless. He cursed to himself and wondered how much time he had left before the nova bombs would go off. He obviously didn't have much time left, and there was little he could do against the Epitome of Light except just anger it further.

_I need something to kill this thing,_ the vulpine thought with a growl as he nimbly sidestepped and ducked several incoming beams.

[_Wish granted_,] came a familiar, soothing voice in his head. Fox was puzzled as to where he had heard that mental voice before. It definitely wasn't Krystal's- no, hers wasn't nearly as calming as this one. While pondering over the identity of the telepath communicating with him, a loud _SHINK_ sounded off, causing him to snap his head up. The Epitome of Light had had its left arm sliced off by some invisible blade. The detached arm burst apart into myriad light particles that slowly disappeared. Wailing in pain, it seemed to scan the surrounding area for its assailant. [_It's distracted. Make haste for your starship, Lylatian_.]

As Fox began dashing for the hangar, he thought, _Wait, you're that being that helped me escape that from that detention cell a few months back!_

[_You are correct in your assumption, Lylatian_,] replied the mysterious entity. [_I don't need your story, and you certainly don't need mine- I'm already your ally._ _Sidestep, quickly_.]

The vulpine leapt to the left just as the Epitome slammed its remaining fist into the ground where he was standing. It effortlessly removed it from the metal, revealing that the floor it had touched had been vaporized. As he began running back, he asked _Would you mind helping me get to my arwing?_

[_I consume copious amounts of energy by attacking that Epitome of Light from the distance of three star systems, even for such a simple thing as a mind blade. It will be a while until my reserves are sufficient to unleash another attack. Incoming beams- jump and turn sideways_.]

Fox grunted as he jumped and twisted his body so that it was parallel to the floor. Two beams of light flashed past him, barely missing his body armor. He exhaled a sigh of relief as he landed and began running again from the Epitome of Light, leading it away from the hangar. As it lumbered towards him, he mentally exclaimed, _Great, so what am I supposed to do now?!_

[_The Epitome of Light seems to be vulnerable to being overloaded by certain kinds of energy, such as directed energy and the energy rails of the transit system,_] the distant telepath responded

Fox quickly scanned the room for anything that could help him. It wasn't long before his eyes fell upon a heavy directed energy beam cannon that was lying on the ground. Oikonny's HDEB cannon. _Shoulda known that the ape would've ditched us_, he thought. _Well, can't lift it, but still…_ The vulpine quickly ran away from the beast towards the stern of the _Leviathan_, causing the vengeful Epitome of Light to chase after, putting him just where Fox wanted it to be- right next to the HDEB cannon. _Adder…I hope your shotgun's shells can handle the job…_ With that, Fox turned to see the Epitome of Light raise a hand to fire a beam of light. He leapt to the right, dodging the beam as it erupted form its palm. Strangely, as he dodged, his adrenaline level reached its peak, causing his vision to flash red and time to slow down. Though slightly startled by this, he was able to accurately level his aim at the top of the HDEB cannon…and he fire.

The bullets of the shotgun shell hit their mark, penetrating the weapon and hitting the charge, causing it to explode. A gigantic firestorm unfolded in slow motion as Fox landed on the floor, engulfing the surprised Epitome and blowing the vulpine sideways. Time resumed its normal pace as he skidded along the floor, his partially-recharged energy shielding shorting out again. Somewhat dazed, Fox slowly rose to his feet and gazed upon the Epitome of Light. To his surprise it was still standing, but it was as if the chest region of the living aurora had been blown away, revealing a pulsating sphere.

[_That object in the center of its chest seems to be its source of energy, possibly its heart,_] echoed the calm voice within Fox's head.

_ In other words, it's the weak point_, Fox assumed.

[_Precisely. Quickly! Attack it!_]

Fox aimed down the sight and began unloading shells into the sphere, which resulted in the Epitome of Light wailing in pain and taking several steps backwards. It then raised its arm in front of the sphere to protect the weak point, seemingly gasping for breath. The vulpine took this lull in the action to start reloading the shotgun. He pulled the pump back and began loading individual shells into the right side of the weapon. Finding eight shells to be the cap, he pushed the pump back and raised the weapon to continue the attack…but found that the Epitome of Light had undergone a startling change.

The luminous entity had darkened to a red color and had morphed its single arm into six tentacles that distributed evenly so that there were three on each side. Clearly enraged at the discovery of its weakness, it let out a deafening roar as the tips of each tentacle began to shimmer with energy,

"Shit!" Fox cursed as he ran away from the Epitome back towards the hangar. The enemy let loose six light beams, which the vulpine was barely able to dodge by sprinting. "C'mon, you stupid shields, recharge! Recharge!"

The Epitome of Light suddenly leapt through the air and landed with a slam of all of its tentacles against the ground, generating a wave of energy and sent Fox flying fifteen feet through the air with a scream before landing on his stomach with a thud. The shields, barely recharged, malfunctioned once more in a flash of light, but this time the force of the Epitome's attack caused the vulpine a large amount of pain and soreness.

[_Roll onto your back and fire Lylatian!_] the strange voice resonated in his mind. [_The Epitome of Light is charging at you, but its weak point is exposed!_]

Forcing himself to ignore the sharp pain, Fox rolled over to find that his distant ally was correct. The enraged physical manifestation of light energy was lumbering towards him, tentacles primed to strike. However, the raised tentacles left its heart vulnerable to attack. He weakly lifted his shotgun, aimed, and fired.

Roaring with pain, the Epitome slipped and fell backwards, lying exposed on the floor. The red-furred vulpine took this opportunity to get to his feet and began firing his shotgun into the sphere again and again and again. Each pull of the trigger resulted in the thrashing of the Epitome of Light against the ground as it grew steadily darker in color. Now a dark red, it now screamed with rage.

[_Lean backwards, now!_] came the smooth voice again. Fox did as he was told…just as his adversary lashed out its tentacles. If he hadn't leaned back, he could have been easily ripped in half. He quickly rolled to the side to unload more rounds into the Epitome's center. He was able to fire and pump one shot before pulling the trigger…and realizing he was out of rounds for the shotgun. He looked over the bandoliers criss-crossing his chest, but they were completely empty.

"Dammit!" he cursed as he once again ran from the Epitome of Light, now getting to its feet. Spasmodic with pain and fury, it began firing beam after beam of light at Fox. The vulpine was tossed around the by countless explosions occurring in all directions. A final beam sent him ten feet through the air before landing hard against the ground. The luminous being charged up to the body and inspected it. It was covered in blood and was in an awkward position. And it did not stir.

The Epitome of Light breathed heavily out of the satisfaction of finally killing the Lylatian and turned away to head for the escape pods. It was then the Fox opened his eyes, yanked Adder's Desert Eagle Mk. VII magnum repeater from its holster, and began firing at the Epitome's exposed heart. Doing his best to control the high kickback of the pistol, he fired repeatedly into the enemy, which was falling to its knees, screaming with agony.

Fox had quickly emptied his clip and had ejected it, frantically working to remove a fresh one from his pack. The Epitome of Light was struggling to its feet and the tip of one of its tentacles was shimmering with energy. In Fox's haste to get a fresh magazine, he had accidentally ejected the rounds.

_Dammit!_ he cursed mentally.

[_Prepare yourself,_] the distant telepath's voice reverberated in the vulpine's mind. [_I now have enough energy for a last attack._]

Suddenly, a beam of pure-white energy appeared from behind the Epitome of Light and struck its chest, causing a massive explosion. The enemy, which once shone brilliantly, was now a ghastly dark color. It collapsed to the ground and fired its last light beam, which fired upwards instead of at its intended target. The orb at the center of its chest grew dark as well and the Epitome of Light began to slowly dissipate into a stream of black particles that disappeared as they rose into the air. The Epitome of Light…had been vanquished. Fox exhaled a sigh of both relief and fatigue as he laid his head backwards against the floor.

[_There is no time to rest, Lylatian_,] echoed the telepathic entity's voice. [_You must escape from the ship and get out of range before the nova bombs detonate. You have less than two-and-a-half minutes to do so!_]

The leader of Star Fox was brought back to his senses by this and stumbled to his feet and began to run towards the hangar. His run was awkward due to his injuries, however, with his left leg skipping along the ground rather than making full contact with it. Nevertheless, he reached the hangar and began entering the code to unlock the canopy of his Arwing III. Scrambling up the side of the fighter and into the cockpit, he frantically started up the engines, closed the canopy, activated the G-diffusers, and diverted all weapons energy and almost all of the shielding energy to the engines and rocketed out of the hangar at breakneck speed. Direction didn't even matter at the moment- he was just focusing on getting as far away as he could from the _Leviathan_ before the nova bombs went off.

"Come on…," Fox growled as his starfighter boosted through space. "Come on…"

* * *

Inside the _Leviathan_

Five minutes ago

The tentacle-limbed Infiltrator passed through the wall of the inner hull near the bridge with a ripple. Around it were dozens of humans, mechs, biogenetically-altered soldiers, Plague specimens, Epitomes and vehicles racing for the escape pods. As it entered the area, they immediately stopped and raised their weapons at the Infiltrator. It merely opened its bulbous eye and spun around so that all would gaze into it. Those around him stood dazed for a few seconds as their minds were being wiped of their memory of him and were left incapable of registering it before they continued in their rush for escaping the ship alive. Keeping its eye open, the orange and black being hovered towards the bridge. It didn't have much time, as the nova bombs were set to go off in a few minutes.

After reaching the bridge, the Infiltrator scanned the room, setting its sights on the closest computer available. It quickly floated over to it and began inputting commands into it. Its bulbous eye widened as it realized that the humans were starting to delete all information in the databanks.

_For once, I must curse the humans for following our procedures_, it mused with slight humor. The data wipe meant that he had even less time to locate the necessary information. Thankfully, in the eyes of most, the information was quite trivial. To the Infiltrator and its kind, though, it meant everything to them. Absolutely everything.

Several seconds of hurried typing led it to an internet browser, where it quickly accessed a search site. He inputted the words "planetary energy" and entered the command to search the internet. Its eyes widened once more as the first results included "Energy grid," "Low cost, low maintenance power," and "Alternative fuel." Selecting the "Alternative fuel" link, it was led to a web page describing the applications of planetary energy.

_Powering their transportation?!_ it thought, indignation rising. _Powering their homes?! _Their_ lifestyles?! …Master Chronicus' suspicions were correct after all…_

The Infiltrator had found the factual information and evidence it needed. Its mission was complete. Now its only task was to return to its master. Removing a strange, metal object from its side, it applied pressure to it, causing a miniature slipstream rift to appear in front of it. It quickly entered the rift and disappeared without a trace.

* * *

00:46:17 was what the timer read on Adder's HUD. The serpent still lay on the ground in the same position as he had fifteen minutes before. By now, a pool of his own blood had accumulated around him. Laying eyes on the timer, which was flashing red as it reached zero, he sighed.

"Heh," he laughed weakly to himself. "Upside of ignoring pain- better soldier. Downside- slow, agonizing death. Heh, heh…"

Adder slowly began reflecting over his life. His achievements, his faults. His happiness, his depression. His dwindling life, his imminent death. He was able to reverse the cruel reputation of snakes- at least for the most part- to a point where it was almost nonexistent. He had fought through four major wars- Lylat, Aparoid, Anglar… First Lylatian-Human Intergalactic. He had made valuable friends and fought alongside them. He had kept his promise to James, saving Fox's life. On the other hand, he had many faults. He wasn't exactly the most sociable person, and he disliked society for what it had held his kind for. He was too formal (he chuckled to himself, the words, "For the last time- call me Cris" coming to mind).

00:24:88

He then reminded himself of his happiness. He remembered the old days with his two brothers, his mother, his father, his friends. Then there was his time as a member of the original Star Fox and later the founding of the Star Serpent Elite Squadron and Soldier Force. And for a short time, he had to admit, he had a short, romantic relationship. Then there was his sorrow. Loosing his family. James dying due to his fault. He himself was now dying, leaving behind a decentralized team.

00:13:01

"What a great and meager life I've had," Adder spoke to himself, shaking his head, smiling. "But my work is done…and now it's time to leave this realm…with a bang."

00:05:43

00:03:26

00:01:07

00:00:00. The nova bombs went off, their gigantic explosions engulfing and quickly killing the serpent.

_ So…this is what death feels like… Complete and utter darkness, coldness… After all these years of escaping death and staring it in the face, I am now…dead. Well, I guess that's that. What's done is done. The past is etched in stone._

_ Thank you, Star Wolf- Panther, Leon…and Wolf… Thank you for helping me through those early years, O'Donnell. Thank you for being a friend and comrade since then._

_ Thank you, Star Fox- Falco, Marcus, Tallon, Krystal…Fox… Heh, you've raised a fine son, James. A strong body, a strong mind…a strong heart. A strong…valiant heart. I know you're up there smiling upon him constantly, and you've good reason to do so._

_ Thank you, Star Serpent- my team. Thank you, Aloysius, you thick-headed brute. Thank you, Ace, pit viper of many valuable talents. Thank you, Brutus, good friend…and definitely superior cook, heh, heh, heh. And…thank you, Cris… Cris… Cris… Thank you, Cris…you friendly, if not sometimes rebellious girl. Thank you…for caring about me. I know you loved me, and I know I loved you as well… Team… Please… Do your best to pull on without me._

_ Thank you…everyone…my friends. Thank you for everything. It is time for me to finally be reunited with my family… Farewell._

* * *

Inside the _Leviathan_, the detonation of the nova bombs were translated into a tremor that rocked the entire ship, bow to stern. The last of the human soldiers and forces launched their city-sized escape pods and zoomed off. Meanwhile, inside the Gargantuans _Colossus, Behemoth, Goliath, Titan, Gigas, _and _Hulk_, all hell was breaking loose. The last of the personnel inside were scrambling into their escape pods and launching them, breaking off from their country-sized motherships and speeding off into the depths of space.

The _Leviathan_, however, was starting to wobble slightly in its position. The entire ship could be seen swaying gently. This oscillation picked up in severity as the collapse of the supporting beams in the middle of the ship was beginning to weaken the ship's structural integrity. With the black hole pulling forward and the massive engines applying equal force in the opposite direction, something had to give. And it did.

The entire midsection of the _Leviathan_ disintegrated in the matter of seconds and the ship of immense proportions was bisected. It was as if it were the zipper of a jacket that was suddenly yanked down, although explosively of course. The front half immediately began drifting towards the center of the black hole to be crushed into an incredibly small point while the rear section, lightened by the loss of its front half, was sent soaring through space in the opposite direction. Now without the exact level of energy required to remain stability, the black hole quickly went out of control. The six remaining Gargantuans were being slowly pulled towards the singularity, swaying as the first had done. Two of the three were quickly ripped apart by the gravitational pull of the black hole, their rear sections in a way deciding to leave without them. The remaining four, country-sized battleships were completely obliterated in explosions of previously unimaginable size, the flames both being quenched by the vacuum of space and being sucked into the black hole. Easily hundreds of quintillions of currency had been consumed by the black hole in less than a few minutes. Suddenly, all was dark. For a few minutes, the ULSSDF fleet was in complete darkness and confusion. Then a humongous burst of energy let loose from the black hole, momentarily blinding all that looked into it. Where there was once a black hole was a new, reborn Solar. Upon seeing this, the Lylatian fleet cheered with joy. They had won the war. They had achieved victory over the humans.

"Whooooo!" Ace cheered, then teased the fleeing human ships, "Yeah, you better run! Run as far as you can, 'cause you can't mess with us anymore! Yeah!"

"Finally over," Xamuros in Longsword mode spoke. "The war is finally over. Spades, mechs- we are finally free!"

As additional cheering from the Lylatians' allies rose, Cris scanned the space around them and asked in a tinny voice, "G…guys? …Where are…Fox and…Adder?" The members of Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf stopped their cheers and checked their radars.

"…I have nothing…," Tallon spoke quietly.

"No contact here," Aloysius added.

"Same," Wolf said, the slamming of a fist audible. "Damnit! C'mon, Fox! C'mon, Adder! I know you're better than that!" Some time passed and nothing came up…until…

"I've got a new contact!" Krystal cried. "And it's a Lylatian signature!"

The others checked their radars to find a single blip slowly heading for them. They looked in the direction and broke into cheers as they saw the familiar shape of the Arwing III soar past them and regroup.

"Hah, leave it to Fox-boy to arrive dramatically," Falco huffed smugly. "What took ya so long, man?"

"Sorry for the wait, everyone," Fox said weakly. "Little problem with an Honor Guard mech, a commando, and the Epitome of Light."

"Damn, you were able to engage those guys, more or less live through it?" Marcus asked. "Can't fault you for taking that long, then! How'd you do it?"

"We can save the stories for later, son," the vulpine leader responded, attempting to avert conversation. "Let's just return to the _Dreadnought_. We need some well-deserved R-and-R."

"Wait…," came Cris's voice. "Fox, what happened to Adder?"

Smiles faded when the vulpine did not reply. He merely stared down and closed his eyes.

"F-Fox?" Cris choked.

"I'm…s-sorry, everyone…," he finally spoke. "Adder…he's…he's…," Fox found that he could not speak as he began to sob. Two tears streaked from his eyes, leaving behind a darkening the fur in its path. "He's not coming back."

No one spoke afterwards. Fox couldn't help but sob slightly. He hardly cried. The last time he did so was after hearing from Peppy that his father had died. He hadn't realized how close he was to Adder. The death of the serpent seemed as if a part of his father had died as well. He may not have realized, however, that it was also a part of himself that had perished along with the serpent.

* * *

Inside the _Dreadnought_

1504 hours

"Hold still, Fox," Krystal said as she wrapped the roll of bandage around his back and over his left shoulder blade. "You're making it harder by cringing. And please set the shotgun on the table so it's easier." The two were in the mess hall, and Krystal was attempting to dress Fox's wounds.

"Sorry," he apologized, setting down Adder's weapon. Doing his best to ignore the searing pain of contact against his wounds, his mind drifted towards Adder. To him, his death seemed so…so unreal. Adder was such an excellent soldier- he was such a high caliber of a soldier, it couldn't have been possible that he would have died.

Reading his thoughts, Krystal sighed, "I know it's hard to accept, Fox, but…he's gone. There's no averting that fact."

The vulpine slowly nodded, "Yeah…I guess so."

"Alright, done," the blue-furred vixen stood up. "You're all bandaged up." She attempted a pat on the back, but that only made Fox yelp from the pain, to which she exclaimed, "Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright, it's alright!" he managed to smile. "Just don't…EVER…do that again."

"So…I guess you're going to be okay, then?" Krystal inquired worriedly.

"I'll get over it with time…," he responded. "After dad's death, Peppy told me to ignore the darkness of the past and move for the light of the future. I can do the same in the present with time."

"Just like him to be so wise," the vixen wrapped his arms around him, taking care to avoid contact with his wound area. "I'm so glad you're alright…"

Fox returned the embrace with his wife before he asked, "Krystal…I want to ask you something, and I want a truthful answer from you- Did you know that…Adder was going to die?" His wife froze immediately after hearing the question, and she had no need to reply for Fox to be able to know the answer. "You knew…"

"Fox…," she backed away. "How did you…know about it?"

"I remember a few months back when you left our room in the middle of the night and headed to Adder's quarters," he replied. "After neither of you spoke of anything since then, I thought something was up…"

"Fox, I…I didn't mean to-" she stumbled.

"It's okay," he closed his eyes and looked down. "I know you didn't want to hurt anyone by letting everyone else know. But now everything makes sense. Adder knew he was going to die. That's why he didn't attempt to go further with Cris…" Fox looked up towards Krystal. She noticed that he was looking at her and averted her gaze. He sighed, walked up to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "Krystal, I said it's okay. There was nothing that could've been done, anyway. You meant no harm." His wife weakly smiled back.

"Everyone?" came Brutus' voice over the intercom. "I managed to locate Adder's electronic will. Let's meet in the mess hall and view it."

Fox and Krystal quickly seated themselves at their table and waited for the others to arrive. One by one, the commandos-for-hire filed into the room from the teleporter. Xamuros had decided to stay onboard the _Dreadnought_ for a bit, so he was present as well. Brutus was the last to arrive with the PDA. Fox glanced at Cris. She looked extremely sorrowful. The only thing she did once she sat down was stare at the ground without moving so much as an inch.

"Alright, guys," Brutus spoke as he set the PDA on the floor in the center of the room. "I'm going to activate the holo-file." He entered a few keys before-

"Personal information access attempt detected," a female voice chimed from the device. "Please re-enter code. Explosion setting off in T-minus ten seconds."

"Dammit!" he fumbled with the electronic device and entered the code again. "Adder sure didn't leave anything to chance." He set the PDA on the ground.

"Access granted. Opening holo-file." A small projector near the top of the PDA activated, creating a ghostly blue image of Adder, whose face was the only thing visible.

"Is it working?" the hologram of the serpent asked. "Testing, one, two, three… Damn, I hate technology," the ghostly image backed away to reveal the entire body of Adder, who began. "Well, if you're viewing this, I'm dead. I'm not good a sugarcoating things, so I'll leave it at that. If I'm not dead, however, either you're my lawyer or you're one of the sickest people I've met." Hearing this, Ace burst into laughter, but after receiving stares from everyone else, he quickly stopped and lowered his head.

"If the case is that I'm dead," Adder's image continued, "then there are some things that must be worked out. The list isn't long, but it's extremely important. In my death, I leave a team without a leader. That's, well, basically the list." He shrugged with the last remark. "Anyways…the person I have chosen as my successor is someone I've known for a very long time. That person has been with me through good times and bad. Moreso of the latter. I know the person to be reliable, warm, friendly, and a great soldier. And, no, Aloysius, you don't fit the first three." The bat couldn't help but give a short laugh at that. "My successor is also… Yeah, I'm killing you guys with suspense, right? I might as well just spit it out. The new leader of the Star Serpent Elite Squadron and Soldier Force and my successor to the role is…Brutus Kinsley."

All eyes fell on the boa constrictor, whose mouth was open slightly. Looking at those around him, he spoke, "This must be a mistake. It can't be me! It couldn't possibly be me!"

As if anticipating the response, Adder's hologram spoke, "Look, I know you may not think that you're a very good leader, Brutus, but I know that you have good judgment. You put the team far before yourself and you know what Star Serpent's best interests are. I know it may seem that the heavy burden of being a leader may seem to have been dropped on your shoulders, but that's not true. Brutus, leaders-to-be don't allow the role to find them- they step up to it. I leave all my possessions to you, Brutus. This includes custody of all belongings that pertain to me, including weapons and the _Dreadnought_ itself. I know you'll be a fine leader, Brutus. You'll do well." Brutus eyes now shone with resolution and he nodded as if he acknowledged an order.

Adder's image stepped towards the PDA but stopped. He added, "Oh, one last thing- don't make a big deal of my death. The least I need to leave behind are people who won't get over it. Just acknowledge and understand that I'm gone, and then move on. No ceremony, no funeral, and certainly no cremation, if there are any remains. That is all, team. Stand attention!" Brutus, Ace, Aloysius, and Cris stood to their feet and saluted Adder's hologram, who returned the salute. "Carry on, my friends. Good luck in times to come." With that, the serpent walked up closer so that the image was reduced to his face as he shut off the feed.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds. Ace broke the silence by asking, "Well, sir? What are your orders?"

Brutus looked questioningly back at the albino, but after realizing that he was now in a position of leadership, he replied, "No orders. Just relax, do whatever you want." As everyone began to leave, he suddenly added, "Wait, Ace. By the way, if you dismantle any appliance, electronic, weapon system, or alarm system on the ship ever again without my permission, you're as good as dead. Clear?"

"Crystal, sir," Ace nodded.

"And please don't refer to me as 'sir'," he replied with a warm smile. "Don't want to be too formal, alright?"

"Gotcha, Brutus."

As the team made way for the teleporter, Fox walked up to Cris, exclaiming, "Cris! Wait!"

The arctic fox pivoted on her heel to face him and asked, "Yes? What is it?"

"Take this," he spoke, offering Adder's shotgun.

Her eyes immediately lit up and she reached for it, but hesitated and looked at Brutus, who added, "He would've wanted you to have it, Cris. I'm no good with shotguns anyway. Take it."

Cris's eyes shone with gratitude as she accepted the shotgun, looking over the weapon as if receiving it for a birthday present and whispered quietly, "Thank you, both of you, so much…" Fox smiled and nodded in reply before heading into the teleporter with Krystal. When they reappeared, they were on the crew deck near the living quarters.

"So what do you plan to do now, Fox?" Krystal queried.

"Something I've planned to do ever since we got halfway through the battle on the _Leviathan_," he answered with a grin. "I'm gonna sleep for a whole day straight." Both of them laughed at the statement as they headed to their room.

* * *

Author's Note- Alright. Battle's over. War's won. But at what price? Lylat is in ruins once again, leading to another Reconstruction era. And our teams have lost a very special person...

I have to say that this was one of the rescuing scenes of this concluding chapter. I think I did really well with the emotions in the various scenes above, but I'll leave that to the reader to decide. Until then, read and review, my friends. As always, constructive and advanced critique are encouraged.


	35. Chapter 16, Part 5: Aftermath, Epilogue

Chapter 16, Part 5: Aftermath

March 24, 2362

Inside the _Dreadnought_

1024 hours

Fox slowly opened his eyes and blinked several times to clear the grogginess out of his head. He rose with a yawn and stretched his arms and his back. Looking to the side, he noticed that where his wife had been were only wrinkled bedsheets and a folded blanket. Krystal was gone, probably in the mess hall. After performing the daily morning ritual, which consisted of making the bed, using the toilet, taking a steam shower, using the putrid potion that was dental foam, and changing into a T-shirt and a pair of shorts, he left the room for the mess hall.

Upon reaching the room via teleporter, he found that it was completely empty. Fox felt panic rise within him until he began to think logically. _Okay, where else could they all be?_ he pondered. One answer came to mind- they had received a message from the generals while he was still deep asleep and were on the command deck. Heading through the teleporter once again, he rematerialized on the command deck, and sure enough, everyone was there, seated in their command chairs with the holograms of Pepper, Peppy, and Halcyon floating in between them.

"Fox has arrived," ROB reported with trademark seriousness.

"Well, look who decided to show up," Slippy chuckled. "Hey, Fox! Isn't Falco usually the one who gets up out of bed the latest?"

"Funny, Slippy," he grinned and shook his head before heading down the flight of stairs and seating himself. "So…what did I miss?"

"Not much," Pepper replied. "But it's extremely important- and yes, important enough to interrupt breakfast. Iradanus is still alive."

"What?!" the vulpine exclaimed. "That bastard is still out there and kicking?!"

"Unfortunately," Xamuros nodded. "We might as well show him the footage." Peppy nodded and tapped a button on an unseen console. Another holographic screen popped up to reveal a video of none other than Iradanus.

"I'm still alive, you Lylatian dogs," the dictator rasped. "You've thwarted our attempt to drain your planetary energy, you've prevented us from killing you all, and you've nearly taken my life. My forces will retreat and regroup for the time being, but read my lips, Lylatians- there will be future conflict, and we'll be the ones that will rise victorious."

"Yep, he's alive, alright," Peppy adjusted his glasses before having the screen removed, "and he's definitely going to want revenge."

"Now I may present the new details," Halcyon spoke in his signature, monotonous voice. "While it has been confirmed that the humans no longer occupy the Lylat System, it is clear that we will engage in future conflicts with them. However, we have reason to suspect that there will not be any conflict until after a few years. In that time, the humans would have to recover from loosing much of their military forces and may possibly divert their attention to other races in the cosmos."

"So, you're basically telling us we can kick back and relax?" Wolf asked.

"Pretty much," Pepper shrugged. "Nevertheless, we must commend you, Star Fox, Star Serpent, and Star Wolf; for your exploits during the First Lylatian-Human Intergalactic War. Unfortunately, the price was paid…"

"Adder…," Cris whispered and looked down.

"Yeah," Peppy sighed. "Such a shame… Saved my pelt many times in the past… Ahem, getting back to the point, we shall forward you your pay for your actions during the war- an amount equal to three million ULS credits."

"Damn!" Brutus exclaimed. "Why so much?"

"Well, first of all," Pepper began, "your ship is in dire, DIRE need of repairs, modernization, renovation, et cetera. Second, the sum is for all three teams to decide how to split. Third… sorry for the informality, but for crying out loud, you saved the Lylat System for the umpteenth time, this time from being either reduced to inhospitable worlds by energy siphoning or getting sucked up into a black hole! We're going to have to give you guys a lot of credit- wow, little pun there- for saving the Lylat System's ass from total annihilation! AGAIN!!!"

"Do have to agree with that, there," Falco cracked his neck. "That's still a sweet amount of money, though."

"Well, as the supreme general regains his composure," Peppy began. "Oh, I was just joking, sir! Ahem, we must thank you again for saving the Lylat System. The money will be forwarded to your account immediately. Until next time, everyone! General Hare out!"

"Once again, we are deeply grateful for your actions during the war," Pepper spoke. "We wish you luck. Now, for the sake of future conflicts with the humans, fix up that ship, alright Brutus? Supreme General Pepper out."

"…The death of Adder Waldheim McBannon was extremely unfortunate, and though I may not show it, am deeply sorrowful," Halcyon spoke, though there was nary a change in his tone. "Please do well to keep your combat abilities sharp for conflicts of the future. General Halcyon out."

As the holoprojector shut off and the screen covering the window lifted, Brutus clasped his hands and said, "I guess that's that, then. So, does anyone have any idea how to split the money?"

"How about an even thirty-three-point-three-repeating, thirty-three-point-three-repeating, thirty-three-point-three-repeating?" Ace suggested. "In other words, a million for each team?"

Wolf consulted Panther and Leon before replying, "We're good with six-hundred-thousand credits. The remainder can go to Star Serpent. I'm really tired of having to live in this dump. Plus, I'd be fine having a slightly less satisfactory vacation to Fortuna than having an outdated security system next time we meet up with those hairless apes. Remember the Hunters?"

"Can't argue with that," Aloysius agreed. "It was annoying enough having about thirty or so on this ship."

"We're getting the most money here," Brutus spoke, "so is everyone here fine with the split?" Confirmations were the only things audible.

"Great, so we've got the thirty-three-point-three-repeating, twenty, forty-six-point-six-six-six-six-six-six-six-seven-and-on split!" Ace smiled.

"You just love showing off, don't you?" Leon rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, pretty much," the albino replied.

"Well, then," Brutus rubbed his hands together, "Now that we're set on the split, I'm going to divvy up the transaction. In the meantime, everyone else should pack up their stuff. I'm planning on getting the _Dreadnought_ to a shipyard as soon as possible, so get ready to leave."

"I guess this means we'll be taking the _Great Fox II_ home, then," Fox nodded. "Let's pack up, guys."

"You heard the man," Wolf began heading towards the teleporter. "Panther, Leon, let's close up shop and head back to Sargasso."

Everyone began filing into the teleporter to get ready to leave while Brutus went to his room for his laptop to split up the transaction. Fox and Krystal headed back to their room and began packing up their stuff.

"Need help with your clothes, Krystal?" Fox smirked.

"Aw, don't joke like that, Fox," the telepath replied with a grin. "Leave that department to Falco. So…I guess you're going to be okay?"

"Huh?" he looked up from underneath their bed, taking out a pair of suitcases. "…Oh, you mean Adder, right? Like I said before, I'll get over it. Besides, he said in his will that the least he wanted were people moping over his death."

"That's good to hear," Krystal's lips pulled into a gentle smile. She casually walked over to Fox and the two embraced.

"Krystal…," he broke away. "Something's bothering you."

"Hm?" she raised an eyebrow at first before looking away. "Yes… you do remember when Halcyon mentioned Adder's entire name, right? For some reason…the middle name 'Waldheim' seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place it. It's nothing Fox."

"Okay," Fox nodded. "Let's get back to packing up. We gotta get ready to leave ASAP."

* * *

"Look, I told you before!" Ace yelled at Slippy. The two were in the hangar, surrounded by all sorts of inventions. "I'm taking the armor, the weapons, and the vehicles! You just have the blueprints and the tools we decided on!"

"No way," the frog retorted. "I gave you plenty of time ahead when I told you that I wanted to have the arwings and your inventions!"

"You can have your arwings," the pit viper returned, "but I want my stuff!"

"Hey, who's chief engineer of Cornerian R-and-D here?" Slippy gave his rebuttal.

"I don't care! You can receive my stuff _after_ I finish touching up on them!"

"Then why didn't you just say so before?!" Slippy was angered to the point of making quick hops into the air. "We don't have to argue like this then!"

"…You're still screeeaaamiiiing," the albino pit viper responded in a teasing voice.

"Aw, be quiet," Slippy rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's get all this stuff ready to move."

"Alrighty, then, Slips," Ace nodded before grabbing a large bundle of rolled-up blueprints. "By the way, why don't I work with you over at CR-and-D? It'll save the time of having to send my stuff to you or travel there."

"Hm…," the amphibian paused to think. "Sounds good. Sure saves a lot of trouble. We'll just keep the stuff here for transport and just move the arwings into the _Great Fox II_, then."

"Alright, then let's get cracking!"

* * *

Aloysius was seated on top of his workbench. His armored life-support system was not present as he stared at Solar. His eyes, sensitized by torture, burned slightly looking at it, but he couldn't help but keep staring sorrowfully at the location where Adder had died.

Suddenly, a knock came from his pressurized door and he spoke in a voice so devoid of roughness that it surprised him, "Come in."

"Are you sure it's okay that I do so?" came a reply muffled by the wall separating the two. "I mean, I might bring in pathogens or ruin the seal or-"

"Nothing to worry about," the ravaged bat interrupted. "There's nothing to worry about. Just come in if you wish."

The bat slipped himself off of the table and headed for the door as steam began hissing from the sides while it unsealed, revealing none other than Xamuros.

"Oh… hello, field master," he greeted.

"Xamuros," the Spade corrected. "The war's over. There's no need for formalities. I just wanted to see how you're doing." The two walked over to the workbench and sat down. "So…this is what you look like underneath that armor."

"Yeah," Aloysius nodded slightly and sighed. "I look at myself from time to time to see how much I've changed. It hasn't been for the better."

The golden cyborg nodded in understanding and spoke, "Adder was your only friend, wasn't he?"

The bat looked down and wheezed, "Yes… He was the only one. Now that…now that he's gone…I'm left without someone I can relate with…except you…"

"…I see… I guess we do share much in common," Xamuros tilted his head as he mused aloud. "We're both cyborgs against our personal will. We intimidate our enemies with our strength and combat prowess…"

"We've also been rejected by our own kind…," Aloysius added sorrowfully.

"…What do you mean by that?"

"Xamuros, ever since I was forced to have to wear my life-support suit out of a sealed environment," he began, "I terrified much more than just the enemy. I scare the living shit out of fellow soldiers and civilians. I am a killing machine, Xamuros. That's all people judge me by when they first lay eyes on me. They don't give a damn about what's underneath all that armor when they're scared shitless by me. Adder, I think, was the only person I could relate to because he had been hated- spurned by this society as much as I had been, if not more."

"Then why haven't you attempted to make friends with anyone else?" asked the Spade.

"Because…," the bat searched for an answer, "because…" He sighed. "The treatment I've received from others changed me. I wasn't always mean ol' Aloysius until people started acting that way towards me. I just hate everyone because they don't care about who I am as a person."

"But does that give you the right to do the same to them?" Xamuros inquired. "Does that allow you to reject them the way they rejected you?" Aloysius couldn't answer; he just looked away. Xamuros looked down and began, "Look… I know where you're coming from, Aloysius. I've been down the same alleyway. That's the reason, after all, why I decided to side with you Lylatians. I'm a killing machine just like you, probably more so since it was the very purpose for which I was turned into a Spade for.

"Aloysius, I don't know whether you will accept it or not, but there are good people out there. Adder was one of them. There's still some light amongst this darkness. There are people who won't judge you the instant they look you over. Just look within the vicinity of the _Dreadnought_. They're good people, your comrades.

"Aloysius…I know you're a good person underneath that rigid, hostile exterior. I know it because no matter how evil or malicious one may seem- or how terrible society may seem- there's always some good to be found. Humans aren't all that bad- they have hearts just like we do. It's just that they've been pushed so far by being rejected by the extraterrestrial community that they want to prove that they are superior. It's just like how you want to affirm to everyone that you're at the top of the food chain.

"You must understand that you must open yourself up to others if you want them to accept you. I understand that you don't wish to do so because you think they don't care, but trust me- you've got to warm up to people. Not many people want to hang around someone who's practically always angry at them, and whether you like to hear it or not, you're just like that. You've become so infuriated by the way society has judged you that you yourself judge society in that fashion. It's just like the humans…it's just like me…" Aloysius looked back at Xamuros, and to the Spade's slight surprise, he was smiling.

"Thanks, Xamuros," he spoke. "You know, you really ought to be a philosopher when off-duty."

"Heh," the golden field master laughed. " Yeah, I really ought to, shouldn't I? Well, Aloysius, I just hope that you understand what you can do to help yourself, okay? In the meantime, I've got to get going." He stood up. "Slippy and Ace wish to talk to me about altering the Spade design." Xamuros didn't get so far as a step before tripping over the bench leg and landing face-first on the ground. "Urgh, hopefully with better foot design." Aloysius gave a surprisingly warm and friendly laugh, which Xamuros joined shortly.

"Thank you for your words of wisdom, Xamuros," the bat said. "Take care."

"You as well, Aloysius," he replied as he exited the room. "You as well."

* * *

Cris was busy packing up the rest of her belongings into her suitcase. She had packed her clothes and her bathroom kit into her duffel bag. Now all was left was to search her room for anything she wanted to take along with her. After searching the drawers and cabinets, she found none. She was just about ready to head over to the hangar when she caught site of Adder's shotgun. The vixen paused for a few seconds before walking over to it and picking it up. Since yesterday, she hadn't let the weapon leave her sight. It was a part of Adder- a memento which she cared deeply for. Seeing the weapon, something else came to mind. She gently set the weapon down on her mattress and went over to her cupboard. Groping under it, she came up with a dusty, old photo. After seating herself on her mattress and wiping the dirt off its glass, she could more easily distinguish what it was.

The picture was the first and only team photo of the Star Serpent Elite Squadron and Soldier Force, easily from twenty years back. From right to left were Aloysius, Ace, Adder, Brutus, and herself in front of a much newer looking _Dreadnought_. The photo had been taken to celebrate the formation of the team. She couldn't help but smile with her eyes half-closed as she looked over everyone. Aloysius, being the antisocial, tough guy he was, had his arms folded and was looking away from the camera. Ace, dressed in cargo pants and a gray, wrinkled T-shirt, was next to the bat and was attempting the age-old "bunny ears" prank but had found that Aloysius was simply too tall for him to do so and bore a expression of frustration. Brutus, dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans, also had his arms crossed like Aloysius, but he had a warm and friendly smile. Cris looked over herself. Dressed in a black tank-top and denim shorts, she had her left hand at her hip while the other was gripping the same duffel bag that she was packing up presently. Then her gaze locked onto Adder, her smile and the twinkle in her eye quickly fading. The serpent, garbed in his black trench coat, was at the center of the photo, standing erect and proud with his legs spread as if on roll call at a boot camp with both arms folded behind his back. His expression was only a slight grin- one of military seriousness, confidence, and strength. It was then that Cris realized that this was the only picture where she and Adder were in the same shot.

Sadness quickly overcame the white-furred vixen. Oh, how she wished that she had been right next to him in the photo! Looking at the photo had also brought a faint glimmer of happiness and hope, both of which were now being crushed by the cruel reality that Adder was now dead. Cris was on the verge of tears when a quick series of taps came from her door, causing her to jump slightly and look up in surprise.

"Y-Yes?" she asked. "Come on in…"

The door slid open to reveal Falco, who looked to see that she was having a private moment and apologized, "Oh! Uh, sorry 'bout 'dat. I'll just leave you alone for a bit…"

"No, no!" Cris shook her head. "It's okay, you can come in."

The blue-feathered avian reluctantly entered her room and sat down beside her. Glancing at the picture he asked, "Team picture, huh?"

"Yeah…," the artic fox slowly nodded. "I just remembered about it after picking up his shotgun… It seemed like it was not so long ago that this picture was taken, but…twenty years just passed by so quickly…This is the only picture where Adder and I share the same frame."

"Hm…," Falco looked away. "You…uh…really liked him, didn't you?"

"Yes…I did…," Cris replied, tears ready to break loose. "And now he's…d…d-dead…"

"I think I know how you feel," the avian spoke in a strangely respectful and caring tone. "It's sorta like how me and Katt ended up like how we are now…"

"What happened?" inquired Cris.

"Well…," he began, "It's not exactly something I'd like to talk about but, uh…Ya see, I used to be a gang member. The Corneria Cutlasses. Heard of them?" The vulpine nodded. "Yeah. Katt and me were boyfriend and girlfriend during that time. I kept my membership secret, though. I knew she came from a good family, so I didn't want to …y'know… get her worked up about it.

"There are lots of things I regret doing while with the Cutlasses. I hurt a lotta good people…a lotta good people that didn't deserve to be kicked around, shot, stabbed, robbed…raped… No, I didn't partake in any of the last part!" Falco exclaimed after receiving a strange look from Cris. "And thank God, I didn't, too! Anyways…even after all of dat, I didn't want to break it to Katt, because like I said, I didn't want to give her no reason to hate me. On those crimes went. They continued for a while.

"Until one day, that is. I was arrested for being involved with the robbery of a small family of a rival gang. Once I was in the papers, the secret was out. Katt, thankfully, paid the bail. But, uh…things changed form that point on.

"Katt left me afterwards. She just told me not to even think about getting married like we had planned. It hit me real hard. Real… real hard. Loosing my girl was too much for me. I quit the Cutlasses a week after. They didn't take that too well, however. They let me go, but not after…uh…clipping my wings. You know how birds of prey have wings on their backs, right?"

"Uh-huh," Cris nodded.

"Well, you can't really see any on me, can ya?" Falco looked down. "After getting through that ordeal, I went to Katt and begged her to forgive me. She couldn't even let herself do so when I literally was on my knees. The most we've been since then were friends. That's it. Friends. There are many times when I wished I had never joined the Cutlasses so we could be…more. Now I have a huge criminal record on my ass, a clipped pair of wings, and no girl. I may not look like the regretful type, but I guess that's just my personality, get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, but…," Cris choked. "…but… Katt's still alive…Adder… He's…he's…"

"It's alright, Cris," Falco tried to comfort her. "Just calm down… Just calm…down…"

"He's…dead!" the vixen wailed. Tears began flooding down her cheeks, staining her fur a dark gray. "He's dead and he's not coming back! Not coming baaaack…"

Cris bent over as she sobbed, and all Falco could do was wrap a feathered arm over her back and gently tell her, "Everything's going to be okay, just calm down."

"Everything's not okay!" she screamed through the tears. "I loved him, Falco! I loved him sooo muuuuch…"

"Shhh," Falco hushed. "I know, I know…Shhh…just calm yourself down…"

The door slid open to reveal Brutus who had heard Cris's cries from down the hall and came to investigate. He quickly looked at Cris, bent over and sobbing over the team photo while Falco had his arm over her back trying to comfort her. He took a step into the room, but realizing he would probably only make matters worse, he withdrew and shut the door.

* * *

About an hour had passed and everyone was waiting in the hangar having last-minute conversations and working out what to do from that point on. Fox was with Krystal, Marcus, Tallon, ROB in front of the _Great Fox II_, their suitcases in a neat pile. The vulpine leader caught sight of Cris and Falco entering with their stuff.

"Okay, I've divvied up the money," Brutus reported, "and the _Dreadnought_'s scheduled for some modernization, repairs, and upgrades at the Algax Shipyards. I'm going to get it over there after you guys all set off. The say it'll take anywhere from eight to eleven months."

"Upgrades, huh?" Wolf asked. "What kind?"

"You'll see," the boa constrictor replied with a grin. "Just be patient. Anyways, it's best to say your farewells, everyone."

Fox immediately began shaking hands and saying his good-byes to his friends.

"See you around, Wolf," he bid a farewell.

"Same to ya, pup," the gray-furred lupine responded. "See ya later."

"Hey, Panther, Leon!" Fox yelled to the two as they were following their leader to their Wolfens. He put his right index and middle finger together against his forehead as a sort of salute. The gesture was returned by the two with a grin. He then went to the newly-appointed leader of Star Serpent and said, "Pleasure working with you, Brutus."

"Same," the serpent reached out for a handshake, which the vulpine gratefully accepted. "Good bye, Fox."

"Yeah, good luck with your new position," the red-furred vulpine spoke. "Ace, Slippy! Heard you guys are going back to Cornerian R-and-D together."

"You heard right," Slippy nodded. "Ace and I are going to be co-chief engineers."

"Yep," the albino pit viper grinned. "Oh, by the way, do you mind if ROB comes with us? Not that we have enough manpower in the department already, but a helper would be nice, y'know?"

"Is that okay with you, ROB?" Fox asked the operations robot.

"Affirmative," it answered. "I shall be grateful for the service.

"Then he's all yours. Take care, alright, you two?"

"'k, Fox!" the green-skinned frog waved. "You too!"

"Aloysius!" Fox ran up to the towering bat, now suited up in his armor. "Good bye for now, alright?"

"Heh, nice fighting alongside you, McCloud," he responded, doing his best to shake Fox's hand without breaking it.

"So what're you going to do now that there's going to be some peace?"

"We all have our secondary jobs. I'm part of Zoness's special police force. You can see why I'm fit for the job, huh? See ya!"

"Alright," he nodded with a smile. "Xamuros, wish you well, alright?"

"Many thanks, Fox," the Spade spun his head around to express his happiness. "Same to you."

"Okay, okay," Fox waved his farewell. Lastly, he went to Cris and spoke, "Good bye. Hope you'll get better, alright?" The artic fox did not reply verbally. Instead, she looked him in the eye, nodded, and reached out a hand to shake, which Fox accepted. "Okay, take care."

As Fox turned away and began heading for the lowered ramp of the _Great Fox II_, he couldn't help but notice that Cris's eyes were red from tears and her breathing was erratic. Falco's reluctance to gaze at her while bidding her farewell led Fox to draw his conclusions as the rest of the team met up with their stuff and began walking up the ramp into their original mothership.

"Do you think Cris'll be alright?" Fox asked the avian.

"I dunno, man," Falco shook his head. "Ever since she broke apart in her room over Adder, she's been all quiet."

"Cris is a strong girl," Marcus affirmed. "She'll pull through it."

"Hey, what if _you_ had a relationship with someone and that person died after you've worked alongside the person for what?" Tallon confronted. "Twenty years or so?"

"I'd be mostly indifferent, but that's just me," replied the older brother. "I understand what you're saying though."

"We're all a little shaken by Adder's death," Krystal spoke. "Time heals all wounds, though."

"Yeah…," Fox nodded as they entered the _Great Fox II_. "Time heals all wounds…"

Several minutes later, one would see three Wolfens, two Bloody Maw fighters, a transport dropship, and the _Great Fox II_ part ways as they headed off for their own destinations. For now, it was farewell…until the next conflict would come…

* * *

Iradanus was seated in the command chair at the bridge of his escape ship, flanked by his special Honor Guard mechs. This had been the first time the humans have ever been defeated by another race during their conquest. The very first time. And he wanted revenge on the Lylatians.

The dictator, full of resolution for vengeance, lifted the phone from its console, dialed a number and spoke, "This is Lord Iradanus. I have a special assignment to ask from one of your soldiers… Yes, his name is Mikhail Korotkin Tarkov. Please get him on the- =asdFJ awhzle[u032 3 n[[ awen wa21\a; sb]b

System Malfunc923_

System Malfunction_

Corruption detected_

Corruption spreading_

System error imminent/a wa495 [ jaxd? mweamwvQWO:IV()#n

* * *

…

NeW dAtA rEcEiVeD_

DiSpLaYiNg Nowww_…

EpIL0gu3

March 24, 2362

L0cat10n UnowGn

T1m3 UnowGn

He had been waiting. He had been anticipating the Infiltrator's return for a quite some time, and he could sense his return. The one known as Chronicus was human in appearance, but only so. He had a stature a few meters taller than the average basketball player, was incredibly thin, and was formed almost entirely of an ornate, chrome-colored exoskeleton. The plates of his leg armor blended together seamlessly and the knees were tipped with a large spike. A strange, chain-like belt encircled his waist, the buckle having an eye pattern etched into it. His chest plates were seamlessly connected much like the leg plates. The being's long, slender arms were decorated in strange runes and the shoulder plates were elongated towards the forearms. The neck was completely covered, as was the majority of the head by a strange, austere helmet that shot out with spikes in various directions. His face was eerily human-like aside from the ghastly paleness…and the three eyes. The first two were where they should be when taking human anatomy into consideration. The left eye looked as if it here carved out of jagged stone while the right was murky, clouded, and had an aura of mystery to it. The third eye, located on the center of the forehead had a pure, bluish-white color and was structured like a normal human eye. In his left hand was a large, wooden staff that curved and branched off towards the end into a multitude of spikes. Chronicus was currently seated in a metallic chair in front of what appeared to be a very large, circular holoprojector. He sat cross-legged in his chair with all three eyes open and appeared to be meditating.

After a few minutes, a second entity arrived. This one appeared to be nothing more than an animated, hovering, black-colored cloak. Two disembodied, clawed hands hovered in front of the sides of the flowing cloak and surrounded by a strange, red outline. The hands appeared to be formed of some kind of metallic alloy, with the individual joints being separated by a line that encircled the hand. There was no sign of any tangible body aside from the hands and cloak. Most astonishing was the design of the cloak, however. The back of the cloak looked completely ordinary, but the front had numerous stars, planets, moons, and other celestial objects moving about in real time. It was as if the front of the cloak were a window to a specific portion of space.

"Meditating again, Chronicus?" the animated cloak spoke in a smooth, feminine voice.

Closing his lower, two eyes, the tall being turned his head to catch sight of the one who had addressed him and greeted, "Ah, Celestis… It good to see you again after such a long period of time." Each word that escaped Chronicus' mouth overflowed with calmness and calculation.

"Hmph…," the one known as Celestis huffed. "Is there a reason you have summoned me here in the middle of my studies of the cosmos?"

"Yes," Chronicus confirmed. "And it is a good reason. Do you recall the Infiltrator I had dispatched to the Lylat System a few months ago?" So far, the only parts of his body that have moved thus far were his neck, his mouth, and his eyes.

"I do," she responded and seated herself in a chair opposite of Chronicus. The cloak bent as if there had been a person wearing it and seating herself with it. Her floating hands moved to a position as if she had crossed her arms, and the edges of the cloak seemed to be linked in movement with the hands (in other words, if the left hand moved left, so did the left side of the cloak along with it). "What of it?"

"Do you recall the recent plummet in overall planetary energy the humans have sent us?" he inquired.

"Again, I do," Celestis answered. "I am not exactly the most patient person, Chronicus. Please get to the point."

"I had sent the Infiltrator to discover the reason why the humans had been sending us less and less planetary energy," Chronicus sighed. "I believe it is to arrive right now."

"Greetings, Master Chronicus and Mistress Celestis," the Infiltrator rasped as it appeared from the shadows. "I have obtained the information you desired."

"Excellent work, Infiltrator," Chronicus spoke. "Please display your memories, if you will."

"Right away, master," it acknowledged. With that, it reached a tentacle towards its head and removed a fine mist-like substance from it. The tentacle-limbed creature then weaved the mist in a circled before letting it fall over the holoprojector. The machine lit up and displayed the image of a Gargantuan.

"Like we had ordered them," the Infiltrator began, "the humans have been using planetary energy to power weapons systems such as the Gargantuan-class battleship. However…as Master Chronicus wished me to do, I discovered that the humans had been using planetary energy for _other_ applications…" It waved a tentacle, changing the image to the web page it had accessed a day earlier. Several pictures were also conjured up, among them a sort of transport and a large power plant. It continued, "The humans have started to use planetary energy to keep up with their populations' energy demands. They've been using it to power their homes, their transport- their lives, in short, my master and my mistress."

Celestis was now leaning closer, intent on what the Infiltrator was saying. She exclaimed, "The swindlers! They're cheating us of our planetary energy! They are using the energy to power their cities when we require it for sustenance!"

"Exactly what I had suspected," Chronicus spoke. "You have done well, Infiltrator. You shall be promoted during your next reincarnation phase."

"Thank you, Master Chronicus," the Infiltrator bowed. "I also have some rather…interesting news."

"Additional information? Please continue."

"The humans have failed us for the first time. The Lylat System, which they had set out to conquer for several months, is still intact. Only one planet had been confirmed to be completely drained of planetary energy."

"The Lylat System, you say?" Celestis asked. "You mean this?" She waved out her arms, which caused her cloak to expand as well. The image of space quickly shifted to a cluster of planets surrounding a yellow star.

"Correct, Mistress Celestis," it nodded. "Not only have the humans failed to completely drain the planetary energy of the system, but they somehow managed to lose seven Gargantuan battleships during their failed attempt to eradicate the system."

"Never since the Iktltektans has such a disaster occurred," Chronicus said, his voice slightly elevating in surprise. "And even then, they were able to enslave that race. How could the Lylatians have been able to stop the humans when we have bestowed upon them our technologies?"

"I know not, my master," the Infiltrator responded, "but for the Lylatians do be able to accomplish such a feat would make them more militarily capable than the humans. If future conflicts between them and the Lylatians arise, it could mean the defeat of the humans."

"…Interesting…," Celestis mused aloud. "Very, very interesting… Would you mind displaying images of these…Lylatians?"

"Yes, my mistress," it complied, displaying a series of images of Lylatian soldiers, their weaponry, vehicles, and technology. "It appears as if the Lylatians are highly technologically adept. An example is that within the scale of a few months, they had reverse engineered the directed energy beam technology we gave to the humans."

"If the humans were to be confronted by this race," Celestis spoke, "it would bring disaster upon our operations, Chronicus. The chain of imported planetary energy, already dwindling due to those humans' greed, will be even more punctuated if the Lylatians begin a vendetta…"

Suddenly another Infiltrator appeared behind Celestis and bowed before saying, "I apologize for the interruption, Master Chronicus and Mistress Celestis, but I bear unfortunate news. There has been a massive breakout from the humans' detainment centers across division two, quadrant three, sub-quadrant one. It has been reported that the races of the Tandians, the Qerasa, and the Iktltektans have escaped and their current whereabouts are unknown."

"This isn't good," Celestis moved her right hand into a position as if rubbing a nonexistent chin. "Those are some of the more formidable races the humans have fought…If they and the Lylatians mount a combined assault, then…Chronicus? Are you paying attention?" The three-eyed entity was staring two images, one of a blue-furred vulpine generating a wave of ice and another of a green-scaled serpent wielding some kind of scepter…

"I was…," he responded and pointed. "Infiltrator, remove the other images and expand those two!" It was the first time that Chronicus had moved a different body part since the meeting took place. The floating, tentacle-limbed being complied, removing all other images and expanding the two images to take up the majority of the holographic space. Upon laying eyes on the two, the Infiltrators cringed and backed away.

"Are those…what I think they are?" Celestis stood, or rather hovered, now.

"I believe so," Chronicus replied, also standing. "Disciples of Darius. Neither of them bear the Mark," He pointed at the vulpine, "but that one bears a Gift," His finger now indicated the serpent, "while that one is wielding one of his Tools. There is no doubt. They are his Disciples."

"Then…that means," Celestis turned towards Chronicus, "the Lylat System could be the location of the Gate… Chronicus, this could mean that we've finally found the Gate!"

"It may and may not," replied the three-eyed entity with mechanical rationality. "Recall that the Qerasa had one among them who bore the Mark, Tool, and Gift of Darius, but the Gate was not within the proximity of the Elraskani system. However, this could be another possible link. But back to our more pressing matter…the humans' disloyalty to us…" The upper portion of Celestis' cloak moved down and then back to its original position as if it were nodding. "They will receive a fitting punishment, but until then, there is the matter of the Lylatians and the escaped races to deal with. Infiltrators." The two hovering servants snapped to attention. "Inform Argus to prepare the army."

"Right away, master!" one acknowledged. The two bowed before withdrawing into the shadows.

"So after all these centuries," Celestis spoke almost happily, "we Echelon are going to engage in battle again."

"Yes," Chronicus nodded. "The humans, while proving unreliable and disloyal in recent times, are our providers of sustenance. We will help them defend themselves, but if they continue to go against our will…," He opened his two lower eyes, "they _will _pay the price."

T0 b3 c0tinu3d…

Star Fox

Rise of the Echelon

Coming soon!

* * *

_Author's Note- That's that. __Star Fox: Contact_ is finished. Now...it's time for the sequel. I have no further comment this time. Read, review, critique encouraged. You know the drill. That is all. Adder McBannon, signing out.


	36. Project: Architect, Foundations

Neurotoxic Productions Presents

A Documentary Series by Adder McBannon

_Project: Architect_

The Making of _Star Fox: Contact_

Episode 1

Foundations

Alright, we're live. _Project: Architect_ is go. Now, you're probably wondering what the hell is Adder up to? The story's over, right?

Right?

Well, no, since there's a sequel. But anyways, that's not what this is for. _Project: Architect_ is the equivalent of the little "making-of" sequences in the Star Wars original trilogy movies. In essence, I'm going to be writing about the story behind the story.

With that out of the way, we're ready to start getting into the details- the making of the first installment of the Contact Saga, _Star Fox: Contact_. Now…I'm gonna start with the foundations of the story. In other words, I'll start with the founding concepts behind the story, as well as how the story itself came to be. And before you people review, please note that this is a _documentary_, not a work of fiction or anything. Don't critique it as one.

For starters, I'll tell you people how I came to fall in love with Star Fox. It was a long time ago, probably when I was five or six. My mom took me to an indoor playground, and they had a small video game arcade room there. There, I saw this one game involving spaceships. Back then, I was a total Star Wars nut, so I decided to give it a try to see if I liked it. Now that I think back, "like" was putting it lightly.

I LOVED the game.

Granted, I did _not_ know how to play so I accidentally kept on charging lasers without firing them and frequently crashed into objects (and got teammates killed).

But I LOVED the game. I loved the starfighters. I loved the anthropomorphic animals, which I thought was a cool idea.

I actually stayed there in that arcade for much longer than my mom and I intended to stay. I only was able to play for a short time, yet I was hooked. Unfortunately, that indoor playground is no longer there today, but the time I had with that game- Star Fox 64- will forever be etched into my memory. It wasn't until I was able to play Super Smash Bros. Melee that I ever saw a hint of Fox McCloud again, but when I did, I really wanted to get into the Star Fox universe. Thoughts of Fox and company started to occupy my daydreams and fill my absent, abstract thoughts.

Therefore, I tried my hand at fan fiction one day, called it a night, and then went to bed.

When I got up the next day and took a look at it, I thought, _…Yeah…No way that's gonna fly._

My first attempt (it didn't even have a title) was TERRIBLE. It ripped off of Halo and Medal of Honor so blatantly, and the dialogue was just plain repugnant. I gave up.

Second attempt started later, maybe two years after. It was better, but it ended up in the same way. Too unoriginal, too stupid. I actually decided to abandon the notion of creating a fanfic altogether.

And during that time, I received my first non-handheld video game console, the GameCube. So I got Star Fox: Adventures and later Star Fox: Assault. I liked Adventures, but it strayed a little far from the series' roots and some aspects were just plain cheesy (Bufomdad? What the hell?). Meanwhile, Assault…good flying, bad for everything else. Including story. And the enemies (A "ferocious, relentless" enemy the size of a car should not die from a single uncharged blaster shot, nor repeatedly run into walls.).

Command…was the ignition to the powder keg. I don't feel I need to state why because I don't want to get started and go off on a tangent.

But, before I started trying to type again like a chicken with its head cut off, I decided that I didn't want it to fall flat like the first two attempts. I wanted something… something that I could call my own. I wanted something original, something that hadn't been done before (or at least to my knowledge).

So I took some time to look into various science fiction novels, especially those from Michael Crichton. I revisited Star Wars in particular, trying to garner inspiration from the iconic series.

Then it clicked to me.

In every single book, every single movie I saw involving extraterrestrials, the aliens were always the highly advanced, powerful, aggressive, invading race while we humans played as the cannon fodder. That is, comparatively low-tech, weak, cowering cannon fodder.

So I thought this: Why not swap roles? Why not go for a complete reversal and turn that stereotype on its head? What would happen if the humans were the superior, aggressive expansionists and the extraterrestrials were the ones who were the inferior, the comparatively weak?

More importantly, what would happen if the said invasion took place in the Star Fox universe?

Finally, five years since I ever conceived the notion of even attempting to write a Star Fox fanfic, I had a good idea. In my belief, a _really_ good idea.

If I went with that, though, then I obviously couldn't have a goody-goody, lighthearted story. Let's face it- movies involving alien invasions are usually quite violent. I needed this story to be dark, gritty, bloody, gory. All of that unwanted stuff (or in some people's cases, the WANTED stuff).

A little interjection here- I learned from a very young age that the world wasn't- isn't- perfect. When I was five, six years old, I turned on my TV one Saturday morning and tuned into my favorite cartoon channel. Expecting Pokemon to be playing…what I got was something completely different.

A newscast involving Nigeria.

At first, as I looked at the injustice and poverty and the plain disgusting nature of it all, I wanted to look away from the kid no older than me, a kid without arms and only a single leg. I wanted to shield myself from the people who were so starved they were potbellied and almost skeletal. I wanted to change to a different channel and watch something else, anything else.

But I couldn't. I was transfixed. My little microcosm, my perfect view of the world was shattered. Strangely, I wasn't repulsed. Rather, I was intrigued. I began to tune into that channel more often, later learning that it was the BBC News channel. I learned of those much less fortunate than me. I learned of the censored horrors of war.

And several years later, I was thinking back to that and all the new truths that I had uncovered since…and was incorporating it into my story.

So there. Those are the foundations of this construct. Those are the founding concepts. Those are the founding _original_ concepts.

However, I still wanted to go further in this originality. I still wanted good ol' Team Star Fox, with Fox, Falco, Slippy, Peppy, and Krystal. Nevertheless, I wanted to take this further. I wanted to keep those characters, but change them to suit my needs. Furthermore, I also wanted my own cast of original characters, some of which I had already brainstormed during my fantasies of the Star Fox team as a younger kid.

So…stay tuned for all of that. Next time, we're gonna get into some good meat- the characters.


End file.
